JSE likely to follow global markets down on Friday
Gold Fields is expected to report its basic loss per share increased about 20-fold, partly due to strikes at South Deep
Naspers and BHP, which together account for a third of the JSE’s top 40 index, are likely to drag the local bourse down on Friday. In Hong Kong, Naspers’s dominant asset Tencent was down 2.4% to HK$333.60, and in Sydney, BHP was down 0.52% to A$36.48. Asian markets were in a sour mood after the US’s December retail sales data showed a 1.2% decline from November instead of the expected 0.2% growth. Annual US retail sales grew 2.3%, down from 4.1% in November. A poll of economists done by Reuters showed the growing fear that US President Donald Trump’s trade war with China will push the country into a recession in 2019.
Gold Fields is scheduled to release its results for the year to end-December on Friday. It said in a trading statement on February 6 that headline earnings per share (HEPS) were expected to fall about 70% and its basic loss per share was expected to be about $0.42, more than 20 times its $0.02 loss per share in 2017. Reasons for the drop in profitability included...
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