A carnage in JSE tech heavyweights Naspers and subsidiary Prosus has dragged the JSE into the red, with the All-Share index closing down 0.17%.
Naspers lost 7.40% and Prosus, through which it has a 29% exposure to Tencent, lost 6.97% after the Chinese gaming and tech behemoth suffered a fresh attack after a state media article labelled online games as “spiritual opium”.
China’s largest social media and video game firm saw its stock tumble more than 10% in early trade, wiping almost $60bn from its market capitalisation, reports Reuters.
According to the news service provider the stock was on track to fall the most in a decade before trimming losses after the article vanished from the outlet’s website and WeChat account on Tuesday afternoon. The article later reappeared with the historically loaded term “spiritual opium” removed and other sections edited.
Meanwhile, the cash keeps rolling in for South Africa’s platinum group metals producers – lining government and shareholder pockets – with Royal Bafokeng the latest to announce a R1.5bn dividend on record interims. The stock, however, dropped a massive 8.52% after the PGM miner revised full-year PGM output down.
A run in some retail stocks stemmed the slide, with Woolies (+2.57%), Spar (+1.63%), Pepkor (+1.28%), Clicks (+2.7%) and TFG (+0.59%) all gaining. Pick n Pay (-1.01%) bucked the trend.
Banks rallied on a stronger rand, with Capitec (+2.83%) leading the charge. Absa added 1.92%, Nedbank 2.15%, Standard Bank 1.93% and FNB parent FirstRand 1.58%. Rand-hedge Richemont (+0.14%) also gained.
Mobile operator Vodacom was also among the winners, adding 3.62%.
In the forex market, the rand tested the lower R14.30s after breaking the R14.50/$-level yesterday, as high-yielding emerging markets seem attractive yet again, comments TreasuryONE. Since last week, the rand has now gained over 2.5% and is the most robust EM over the same period. “We feel the rand is at the lower end of the short-term range, with a close below R14.30 needed to get more gains.”
Commodities gave up some of their gains, with gold, though softer, remaining above the $1,800-handle. Platinum and palladium were under pressure, with both metals down around 1% during the local trading session. Copper also lost ground, last trading at $9,516.
Indicators as at 17:00
Currencies
USDZAR 14.3429
EURUSD 1.1857
EURZAR 17.0013
GBPUSD 1.3892
GBPZAR 19.9192
AUDZAR 10.5776
CADZAR 11.4124
CNYZAR 2.2159
ZARJPY 7.6000
CHFZAR 15.8525
USDAOA 639.53
Equities and bonds
R186 7.30%
US 10 Year 1.17%
JSE -0.21%
FTSE 0.38%
S&P 500 0.12%
Commodities
Gold $1 810.14
Plat $1 045.92
Plad $2 639.22
Rhod $18 890.00
Irid $5 390.00
Ruth $748.00
Copp $9 583.65
Brent $71.78
Iron Ore 62.5% $181.21
Coal API4 $131.00
Gold ZAR R25 936.05
Plat ZAR R14 986.15
Indicators brought to you by TreasuryONE
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