JSE still in red on US debt ceiling

The JSE continued in the red at noon, still taking direction from the negative sentiment coming out of the indecision regarding the US debt ceiling.

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The JSE continued in the red at noon, still taking direction from the negative sentiment coming out of the indecision regarding the US debt ceiling.

A local trader said the debt ceiling uncertainty still remained a driver of the markets into negative territory.

By 12:02 local time, the JSE all-share index was down 0.14%, with platinum miners shedding 0.67%, resources losing 0.32%, banks dropping 0.18%, financials down 0.17% and industrials dropping 0.03%. Gold miners were the single performers, taking 1.55%

The rand was bid at 6.74 to the dollar, from 6.70 at the JSE's close on Thursday. Gold was quoted at US$1,615.21 a troy ounce from US$1,608.34/oz at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was at $1,781.50/oz, from $1,790/oz previously.

European stocks slumped and the euro slid on Friday as sovereign debt fears gripped the market once again, after Moody's Investors Service placed Spain's "Aa2" rating on review for a possible downgrade and threatened to lower its ratings of four Spanish banks, including Banco Santander.

At local time, London's FTSE 100 was down 0.55%, and Paris's CAC-40 was 0.84% lower.

In Asia, markets ended mostly lower on Friday as the cancellation of the US House vote on the debt ceiling undermined investor confidence, with the Australian market falling to a 10-month low.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.7% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 0.6%.

On the JSE, Anglo American (AGL) was off 1.91 rand at 325.49 rand, while BHP Billiton (BIL) slipped 80 cents to 252.95 rand. Sasol (SOL) lost 3.60 rand or 1.06% to 336.40 rand.

Earlier on Friday, Anglo reported a stellar set of results, with a 45% rise in group operating profit to US$6.0 billion for the six months to June, with US$5.9 billion from its core operations.

It reported underlying earnings of US$3.1 billion and underlying earnings per share of US$2.58 - up 40%. Profit attributable to shareholders was up 93% to US$4.0 billion and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) was 31% higher at US$7.1 billion.

An interim dividend of US$0.28 per share was declared - 12% higher than a year ago.

Sasol said it expected headline earnings per share for the year to June to increase by between 22% and 32%, and earnings per share to increase by between 18% and 28%, compared with the prior year.

"In the update from the chief financial officer released on June 14, we stated that we were confident of achieving an overall solid operational performance and containing cost increases to within inflationary levels for the 2011 financial year. At the time the volatility and uncertainty of global markets, as well as any adjustments arising from our year end closure process, made it difficult to be more precise in our profit outlook statement."

Sasol said that profitability for the financial year to June 30 had, however, improved due to its sustained focus on factors within its control - such as enhancing operational efficiencies, delivering on our business improvement plans and strict cost management. In addition, robust global commodity prices had countered the impact of the strong rand.

Among gold shares, AngloGold Ashanti (ANG) was up 3.91 rand or 1.39% to 285.02 rand and Harmony (HAR) added 2.95 rand, or 3.24%, to 94.14 rand.

Impala Platinum (IMP) eased 46 cents to 174.79 rand, while Anglo American Platinum (AMS) shed 9.11 rand or 1.55% to 577.40 rand.

In the industrial sector, British American Tobacco (BTI) lost 1.35 rand to 311.10 rand.

Coal of Africa's (CZA) share price shed four cents to 8.18 rand. Earlier it announced that sales of export coal increased by 148% to 492,781 tonnes in the June quarter from 198,347 tonnes in the March quarter.

CoAl noted that additional rail capacity created by Transnet Freight Rail earlier in the year supported the significant increase of export sales through the Matola Terminal. The purchase of 42,774 tonnes of third party coal and the completion of the port expansion also contributed in the increase of export sales.

Sugar group Tongaat Hulett (TON) said in an update on its operations on Friday that it was continuing to make good progress in reaching its key objectives of utilising its installed milling capacity of about two million tons of sugar.

Its share price gained 1.50 rand or 1.63% to 93.53 rand. - I-Net Bridge

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/jse-still-in-red-on-us-debt-ceiling-1.1108628

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