Commentary Continuing with our review of various JSE sectors and shares, today's report focuses on JSE retailers. The chart below shows that there has been a marked difference in the past 18 months between the performance of general retailers and food retailers. The latter have outperformed the former by a factor of two, and have done so in a steady and controlled fashion. The relative uptrend remains intact and we expect continued outperformance by food retailers. Our favourite retailer is Shoprite (4169c) which remains above rising long-term support at 3850c. Foschini (3220c) has possibly the worst chart in the sector, having broken below successive support levels to an almost four-year low (see chart on page two). There is little support near current levels and we expect the share to continue weakening. JD Group (2860c) has lost roughly three-quarters of its value, falling from above 10000c early last year. Our target support level of 2300c suggests weakness of a further 20% from current levels. Massmart (6680c) is forming a downward staircase with resistance at 7500c and target support at 5500c. New Clicks (1390c) has remained range-bound, consolidating since the beginning of the year between 1300c and 1500c. Pick `n Pay (2910c) broke below primary bull trend support in January and, in our opinion, looks likely to weaken to support at 2600c. Spar (5100c) has been a long time favourite, but failed last month to break above resistance provided by previous bull trend support. We interpret this as very negative and expect weakness to support between 4360c and 4400c. This is far below current levels. Steinhoff (1930 was our top technical put last year but has broken above successive resistance levels, reversing its downtrend. Truworths (2350c) is oversold but still weak. Finally, Woolworths (1130c) has more than halved since early last year but has some way left to fall before reaching our target level of 960c.
