A surge in mining shares on the back of strong commodity prices boosted the JSE All Share and Top-40 to both close up over 0.4% on the day.
Among the winners were Barplats (+6.44%), Angloplat (+4.71%), Exxaro (+3.54%) and Sibanye Gold (+3.73%).
Virgin Active owner Brait surged almost 13% after reporting a profit of R446m in the year to end-March despite losing 25% of its gym memberships. According to TreasuryONE palladium has been the star performer, with the metal trading up 2% on the day and again breaching the $2,600/oz-level after trading around $2,450 only a couple of days ago. Gold is looking to make a run at $1,800 and is currently trading at $1,790/oz, while platinum is trading at $1,085/oz.
In the currency markets, the rand firmed on dollar weakness and as South Africa’s inflation for May came out as expected at 0.1% month-on-month.
“The US dollar is still key to any movements in the market, and emerging markets are tracking the US dollar quite closely. We did see the South African CPI data out today, with the print showing 5.2% y-o-y, which is a 30-month high. The MPC will keep an eye on how inflation plays out, as they will want to keep inflation contained,” says TreasuryONE.
“The key is still the US dollar, and the rand will take its lead from the greenback.”
The dollar is currently trading at 1.1950 against the euro after trading below the 1.19-level just a few days ago.
In the oil markets, Brent Crude has again broken above the $75-per-barrel-level [link to bbg oil report] and “without any increase in supply, it will only be a matter of time before we can see $100 per barrel”, according to TreasuryONE.
Meanwhile, US equity markets barely moved in early morning trade, with both the Dow and S&P 500 starting the day off trading sideways.
Indicators as of 17:00
Currencies
USDZAR 14.1849
EURUSD 1.1946
EURZAR 16.9473
GBPUSD 1.3968
GBPZAR 19.8075
AUDZAR 10.7602
CADZAR 11.5507
CNYZAR 2.1902
ZARJPY 7.8059
CHFZAR 15.4690
USDAOA 653.28
Equities and bonds
R186 7.33%
US 10 Year 1.48%
JSE 0.45%
FTSE 0.24%
S&P 500 0.10%
Commodities
Plat $1 087.89
Plad $2 612.68
Rhod $19 490.00
Irid $6 090.00
Ruth $748.00
Copp $9 289.50
Brent $75.75
Iron Ore 62.5% $213.45
Coal API4 $111.00
Gold ZAR R25 383.79
Plat ZAR R15 430.52
Indicators brought to you by TreasuryONE
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