The JSE ended the week on a high note, gaining another 0.98% to close at 68,063.70 points in a busy corporate news day.
Telkom dropped 2.55% after announcing its CEO will step down next year, while Vodacom jumped 1.12% on its 14% gain in first quarter revenue. Retailers Pepkor gained 4.26% after announcing that sales rebounded almost 14% as it recovered from the worst hit of the pandemic and rand-hedge Richemont added 3.31% on rand weakness and continued optimism from its quarterly results reported earlier this week.
South32 gained 2.36% after getting the nod from energy watchdog Nersa for a long-term deal in which Eskom will supply power to the miner’s Hillside aluminium smelter in Richards Bay. In turn, investors cheered City Lodge’s move to sell its stakes in three hotels in Kenya and its City Lodge Hotel Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Naspers (-1.69%) and subsidiary Prosus (-1.73%) succumbed to profit-taking from a good run this week, while Harmony (-1.48%) and Kumba IO (-0.92%) tracked weaker metals prices. The gold price dropped back below $1,800 yet again, losing almost 0.5% for the day. Platinum and palladium were both down, losing 3.9% and 1.2% respectively.
On the currency front, the rand is closing the week testing the R14.80-mark against the US dollar, nearly 2% weaker than Monday morning. Concerns over global growth, the impact of Covid-19 on the local economy and the uncertainty on how hard last week’s unrests will hit SA, have led the SA Reserve Bank to continue with lower interest rates for longer, leaving the local currency somewhat exposed, comments TreasuryONE.
The rand, which last traded down 0.7% at R14.79/$ from its overnight close in New York, remains the worst-performing emerging market unit. The Russian rouble on the other hand strengthened after the country hiked interest rates by a full percentage point today.
Oil prices corrected after losing ground earlier this week, with Brent Crude closing the week back above $73.50.
Equity markets in the US are up at the moment, with the 10yr yield at 1.29%.
Indicators as at 17:00
Currencies
USDZAR 14.7970
EURUSD 1.1759
EURZAR 17.3946
GBPUSD 1.3749
GBPZAR 20.3383
AUDZAR 10.8859
CADZAR 11.7486
CNYZAR 2.2821
ZARJPY 7.4715
CHFZAR 16.0632
USDAOA 640.00
Equities and bonds
R186 7.35%
US 10 Year 1.29%
JSE 1.27%
FTSE -0.43%
S&P 500 0.20%
Commodities
Gold $1 798.27
Plat $1 046.99
Plad $2 657.20
Rhod $18 390.00
Irid $5 590.00
Ruth $748.00
Copp $9 433.35
Brent $73.62
Iron Ore 62.5% $213.81
Coal API4 $131.50
Gold ZAR R26 588.50
Plat ZAR R15 480.38
Indicators brought to you by TreasuryONE
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