IT and telecommunications shares took a pounding on Monday as a global stock market rout hammered the JSE. Big companies such as MTN and EOH were trading sharply lower as investors fled shares for safer assets.
Shortly after 11am, MTN was trading down by 6,5% at R170,25/share after earlier hitting a 52-week low of R164,64/share. The fall has added to the sharp decline in the value of MTN shares in recent weeks as investors fret about the impact the falling oil price on Nigeria, its biggest and most profitable market.
Other telecoms shares were faring better, with Vodacom off by 1,9% shortly after 11am and Telkom trading lower by 1,7%.
Among the IT counters, EOH was having a particularly rough day, trading down by 8,6% at R145,29/share by late morning. Earlier in the day, EOH had slumped to R136,03/share after releasing a trading statement in which headline earnings per share for its year to 31 July 2015 were expected to be between 20% and 30% higher.
Other big losers on the morning included Adapt IT, down by 5%, and Datacentrix, off by 6,3%.
Markets worldwide tumbled on Monday after shares in China slumped by more than 8%. Worries about China’s growth have sent emerging market currencies plummeting, with the oil price falling sharply, too. The rand earlier on Monday fell to a record low of R14/US$. It had recovered to R13,19 by late morning. Against the British pound, the rand was trading at R20,66. — (c) 2015 NewsCentral Media