Wiese wins Shoprite battle; consumer sentiment plunges; Moody's hits Eskom; Dischem, Telkom

Christo Wiese, the retail magnate who saw his billions evaporate as the Steinhoff share price plunged amid a financial scandal that erupted in late 2017, has clung to his position of power at supermarket multinational Shoprite.

South Africans are feeling very glum about the economy - and that’s official. The FNB consumer sentiment index slumped deep into negative territory during the third quarter of 2019, the bank’s economists report.

In a blow for Eskom, Moody’s pushed the state power firm’s credit rating deeper into sub-investment territory on Tuesday, saying a government plan to reorganise the cash-strapped South African firm would be hard to implement without explicit support from the cabinet.

Looking at the JSE, the best performer on Tuesday was Dischem, climbing nearly 7% as news emerged that Coronation Fund Managers had acquired a beneficial interest in the securities of the company.

Leading the losers on the JSE was Telkom, with its share price plunging nearly 8% on the news that its interim results will disappoint investors.

The worst may be over for the world economy’s deepest slowdown in a decade, says Bloomberg. A wave of interest-rate cuts by central banks including the Federal Reserve and mounting hopes of a US-China trade deal are buoying confidence in financial markets just as key economic indicators show signs of stabilisation after recent declines.