The JSE closed higher on Friday recording broad-based gains while Naspers’s annual results pleased the market. Volumes were low at R11.5bn at the close from an average trading day’s R20bn. Banks, together with platinum shares, rebounded on the day as financials and retailers also ended a choppy week on the front foot. Core headline earnings at Naspers rose 41% to $1.8bn for the year. Businesses outside SA contributed 80% of revenues, compared to 77% a year ago. The market shrugged off earlier concerns about Naspers’s video entertainment division, centred on DStv, with Naspers ending the day 2.6% up at R2,638.61. Healthcare stocks were a drag in the industrial sector and rand hedges were also under pressure as the local currency firmed ahead of Parliament’s speaker Baleka Mbete’s decision on a secret or open ballot in the planned vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma’s leadership. On Thursday, the Constitutional Court ruled that Mbete had the necessary authority to decide on ...
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