South African petrochemicals group Sasol Ltd said on Monday its first-half headline earnings rose 26 percent, helped by a weaker rand currency and higher chemical prices. "This achievement was on the back of a strong operational performance from our global businesses, coupled with a 19 percent weaker average rand/US dollar exchange and improved chemical prices," the company said.Sasol said headline earnings per share (EPS) for the six months to the end of December increased 26 percent to 30.19 rand, in line with the group's guidance to the market last month in a trading update.Headline EPS is the primary measure of profit in South Africa and strips out one-off items.The group said it had successfully commissioned a project in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which is using unique technology to convert ethylene into higher value chemical products used to strengthen plastic for consumer products such as food packaging.
Sasol Limited (Sasol) is an integrated energy and chemicals company. Shares of SSL fell by 0.11% or $-0.06/share to $53.87. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $39.94 and as high as $54.36. On average, 170570 shares of SSL exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 271084.
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