Tuesday, 24 March 2015 21:36
JOHANNESBURG: South African stocks ended slightly higher on Tuesday, following in the footsteps of major overseas markets, with Capitec Holdings surging to lifetime high after the lender reported higher annual profit.
Capitec rallied 7.19 percent to close at a record closing high of 499.50 rand, after giving up some of its gains from an earlier peak of 505 rand during the session.
The lender’s new strategy of targeting wealthier clients in addition to its core low-income customers helped boost its 2014 earnings by 27 percent.
“It looks like they will continue to gain in the middle to upper end of the markets where they are rolling out branches targeting higher income people,” one banking sector analyst who did not want to be named said.
Overall, traders took their cue from higher emerging markets stocks as the rally stemming from the U.S. Federal Reserve dampening forecasts of imminent rate rises continued. [
The benchmark JSE Top-40 index rose 0.55 percent to 46,735 and the broader All-share index added 0.57 percent to 52,858.
Recent decliners such wireless phones operator Vodacom and banking group Barclays Africa Group, were up 3.7 and 4.1 percent, respectively.
On the downside, Impala Platinum lost nearly 2 percent and rival Lonmin gave up 2.85 percent after brokerage house Morgan Stanley cut its price targets on both platinum producers.
Activity was brisk with around 215 million shares changing hands, above last year’s daily average of 183 million shares.
Copyright Reuters, 2015
