Naspers feels Facebook heat
Shares in Naspers declined in afternoon trade on Monday (28 May) tracking yet another drop in China’s Tencent Holdings, while the Facebook effect on its subsidiaries also weighed.
By 13:00 local time, shares in Naspers, a multinational media company with principal operations in electronic media, declined R6.29 or 1.38% to R450.99 on the JSE despite the All Share Index showing a recovery, following a sell-off last week amid recessionary woes in the Eurozone.
A dealer noted that Tencent was down again in Asia trade on Monday, while Facebook was also a factor. Naspers owns 35% of Tencent Holdings, while both companies have stakes in Russia’s Mail.ru Group.
Naspers owns 30% of Mail.ru Group through its MIH Russia Internet BV investment vehicle. Mail owns 37m shares in Facebook.
Naspers had dropped 5.17% to R436.21 rand last week, its biggest percentage drop in more than 10 months, after a 3.4% slide in Tencent Holdings.
The dealer said that Naspers had seen a recovery towards the back end of last week with some “punters wanting to take some money off the table”.
Shares in Facebook closed at $31.91 per share on Friday (May 25), 16% off its Initial Public Offer Price.
Globally, tech stocks had been bolstered pre-Facebook’s listing; however, the social networking group lost more than $19 billion in market capitalisation from its $38-per-share offering.
In other tech stocks, mobile operator Vodacom dropped 55 cents to R102.95 with the dealer noting investors providing a sell recommendation for the group. Vodacom is facing a price war with fellow operators in SA, while shares in the group dipped below R100 for the first time in more than three months on 18 May, amid a potential crisis for its operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rival operator, MTN, gained R1.10 to R134.25, and Telkom improved 1.43% or 34 cents to R24.15.
ICT group lost 2.32% or R1.18 to R49.73, and Blue Label Telecoms dipped 2.22% or 14 cents lower, to R6.16.
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