SABMiller: Stock hit by Unilever data, strike

SABMiller suffered its biggest weekly decline in more than two years last week as a strike at its South African beer operations continued and Unilever said sales growth slowed in emerging markets. The stock closed 0.27 percent lower at R486.66 on Friday. That extended its decline for the week to 5.5 percent, its biggest weekly slide since August 5, 2011. SABMiller, the second-largest brewer, said a strike over wages at its South African Breweries division was in its fifth day. “The strike action combined with the Unilever report is weighing on this stock,” Henre Herselman, a derivatives trader at Nedbank Private Wealth, said on Friday. “The local stock remained under pressure today because of the stronger rand against the pound.” Unilever, the second-largest consumer goods maker, said after the JSE closed on September 30 that sales growth weakened in the third quarter amid a further slowdown in emerging markets. SABMiller fell 2.3 percent the following day. “SABMiller is always going to be the kneejerk stock when it comes to news like this as it’s got over 70 percent exposure to emerging markets,” Melissa Earlam, an analyst at UBS, said. – Bloomberg