An almost 10% jump in Nedbank on expectations of a bumper increase in interim earnings and the subsequent surge in the banking index was not enough to counter a slide in heavyweight miners dragging the JSE down 0.76% to end the day on 68371.23 points.
Nedbank’s shareholder Old Mutual (+5.35%) and banking peers Absa (+8.28%), Standard Bank (+4.19%) and FNB parent FirstRand (+4.55%) were all among the biggest winners, but mining counters African Rainbow Minerals (-5.16%), Harmony (-4.53%), Anglo American (-3.94%), BHP (-3.76%) and Royal Bafokeng (-4.08%) weighed heavier amid a slump in PGM prices.
Sibanye Stillwater also lost 3.99% despite expectations of a massive 138% jump in half-year earnings, driven by higher production and higher metals prices.
In the commodities market platinum suffered a 1.6% slump to last trade at $1,009/oz, while gold narrowly held onto the $1,800-mark, last trading at $1,802. Palladium was changing hands at $2,658/oz. Brent Crude was also trading sideways, at last count sitting at $70.62 a barrel.
Losses in Sappi (-5.99%) and Naspers (-1.40%) added to the rout.
On the currency front the rand had a bit of a run in early trade on the back of the hawkish commentary yesterday from the US Federal Reserve, but calm has since returned and the local unit has traded in a narrow 10c range. The rand was last trading steady at R14.38 against the US dollar.
“As we head into the end of the week and the US non-farm payroll numbers, it is no surprise that the rand and the market, therefore, are trading in very narrow ranges,” comments TreasuryONE.
The forex trading house says the somewhat hawkish sentiment from the Fed only “puts more of a microscope on tomorrow’s number, and we could see some fireworks come 14:30 tomorrow”. The US dollar was also trading in a narrow range and was last quoted at 1.1840 against the euro.
Indicators as at 17:00
Currencies
USDZAR 14.3687
EURUSD 1.1840
EURZAR 17.0074
GBPUSD 1.3941
GBPZAR 20.0254
AUDZAR 10.6483
CADZAR 11.5090
CNYZAR 2.2226
ZARJPY 7.6336
CHFZAR 15.8408
USDAOA 639.53
Equities and bonds
R186 7.35%
US 10 Year 1.21%
JSE -0.59%
FTSE -0.18%
S&P 500 0.31%
Commodities
Gold $1 802.31
Plat $1 011.46
Plad $2 654.36
Rhod $18 990.00
Irid $5 390.00
Ruth $748.00
Copp $9 459.00
Brent $70.75
Iron Ore 62.5% $182.51
Coal API4 $131.00
Gold ZAR R25 889.10
Plat ZAR R14 529.02
Indicators brought to you by TreasuryONE
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