Woolworths shares fell sharply on Friday morning as investors fretted over the retailer's health after it released a disappointing trading update. The stock fell 8% to R64.68 soon after the JSE opened on Friday, its biggest one-day fall in 11 months. By the end of trade shares had recovered slightly, closing down 3.54% at R67.81. Peter Takaendesa, an investment manager at Mergence Investment Managers, said part of the reason for the group's poor results was Woolworths' Australian operations. "There were some high expectations that they are going to do well there, but even they admitted that things are not going as they had expected. "Things are much slower than what they had hoped to see; that's really coming through and getting the market disappointed," said Takaendesa. In the 19 weeks that ended on November 6, sales at Australian operation David Jones rose a marginal 2.2% in Australian dollars, Woolworths said. Country Road Group sales declined 2.8% in Australian dollars and sales...
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