Johannesburg, 11 May 2005
The Telkom share rose by more than 4% yesterday as investors took to the stock following a positive trading update from the telephone network operator.
The group said it was expecting a 35% to 55% increase in basic earnings and headline earnings per share for the year to March.
This was mainly because of "restructuring expenses and extending the useful lives of certain assets", it said in its trading update.
The market replied by pushing the share as high as R113.45 during the day, almost 5.5% up on Monday`s close of R107.55.
However, the share had given up some of the gains by the close of trade, ending at R112, a 4.1% increase on the previous close. This gives Telkom a market cap of about R62.39 billion.
Volumes were high as more than 2.52 million shares changed hands.
Telkom achieved headline earnings of 812c a share for the year to March 2004. Analysts had until now been expecting an increase in the region of 32%.
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