{"id":386559,"date":"2020-04-01T07:11:44","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T05:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=386559"},"modified":"2020-04-01T07:11:44","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T05:11:44","slug":"demand-for-online-services-drives-naspers-shares-higher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/386559\/demand-for-online-services-drives-naspers-shares-higher\/","title":{"rendered":"Demand for online services drives Naspers\u2019 shares higher"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bad start to the year for stocks? That hasn\u2019t applied to Naspers Ltd., as the coronavirus confined hundreds of millions of consumers indoors, driving demand for online services and entertainment.<\/p>\n

Shares in Africa\u2019s most-valuable company have advanced 11% since 2020 began, the best quarterly performance in a year. In stark contrast, the broader South African benchmark index had lost 24% by Monday\u2019s close, set for its worst quarter on record.<\/p>\n

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The unprecedented reliance on digital products and platforms prompted by the pandemic has boosted Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., in which Naspers has a 31% stake. Naspers unit Prosus NV, which holds the Tencent stake, has gained 17% in Johannesburg this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cTech firms are less affected by the shutdowns, because for some of them business still continues,\u201d said Peter Takaendesa, head of equities at Mergence Investment Managers in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

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Despite the out-performance, by at least one measure Naspers is trading at an increasing discount. While Tencent has gained 1.7% in dollar terms this year, Naspers has declined 14% as the rand weakened.<\/p>\n

That has widened Naspers\u2019 discount to its net asset value to 52% as of Tuesday, according to Mike Gresty, a money manager at Johannesburg-based Anchor Capital Ltd.<\/p>\n

While narrower than the 55% reached earlier this month, the discount remains \u201csignificantly wider than the range it has been historically,\u201d Gresty said. The benchmark index has dropped almost 40% this year in dollar terms.<\/p>\n

The sector is benefiting from the current \u201cwork from home\u201d environment, but a prolonged outbreak will test investors\u2019 patience, Mergence\u2019s Takaendesa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this goes on, and we have another two or three months of lockdown, the market will have to come off even more, and tech stocks will not be immune,\u201d he said. \u201cBut so far, the sector is proving very resilient.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Read: Naspers commits R1.5 billion in aid to fight Covid-19 in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bad start to the year for stocks? That hasn\u2019t applied to Naspers Ltd., as the coronavirus confined hundreds of millions of consumers indoors, driving demand for online services and entertainment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":319962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9882],"tags":[26,107],"class_list":["post-386559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-headline","tag-naspers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":386591,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386559\/revisions\/386591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}