The JSE stage a modest comeback, ending the week in the green despite a continued selloff in mining stocks.
AngloGold Ashanti led the slide in the mining sector with a massive 12.04% drop after the miner trimmed its 2021 production estimate and posted a 10% drop in headline first-half earnings due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and increased bullion mining costs. Gold Fields (-6.80%), Harmony (-4.77%) and Sibanye Stillwater (-1.3%) followed suit, but heavyweights Anglo American (+1.90%), BHP (+2.04%), South32 (+6.28%) and Glencore (+2.30%), which announced $1.18bn (about R16.9bn) in dividends and share repurchases on Thursday after surging metals prices helped drive first-half earnings to a record, all shone.
Adding to the 0.44% rise in the JSE All Share index to close on 68,673.95 points were a 7.29% jump in Karooo, a leading global provider in the telematics industry that offers real-time mobility data analytics solutions for smart transportation. Italtile (+6.32%), Textainer (+5.34%) and Momentum Metropolitan (+2.81%) also put in a sterling performance.
In the currency market, the rand had a very interesting day – from well behaved most of the day after an initial sharp reaction on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Cabinet reshuffle to ignoring the US non-farm payroll number to some fireworks in late afternoon trade, as the US dollar flexed its muscles, reports TreasuryONE. The local unit was trading as high as R14.69/$ in intraday trade and was last changing hands at R14.62 to the greenback.
On the commodity front, gold got hammered after better-than-expected US non-farm payroll number, as the US economy continues to grow. According to TreasuryONE platinum also took a big hit, now trading below $1,000. The metal is currently sitting at $981/oz. Palladium has less of an adventurous day holding firm around $2,645. Brent crude held above $70 a barrel.
The non-farm payroll number came in at 943,000 against 860,000 expected and unemployment roared back to 5.4% from 5.7%.
Indicators as at 17:00
Currencies
USDZAR 14.6678
EURUSD 1.1755
EURZAR 17.2368
GBPUSD 1.3867
GBPZAR 20.3337
AUDZAR 10.7820
CADZAR 11.6608
CNYZAR 2.2612
ZARJPY 7.5194
CHFZAR 16.0378
USDAOA 639.53
Equities and bonds
R186 7.43%
US 10 Year 1.29%
JSE 0.45%
FTSE 0.06%
S&P 500 0.14%
Commodities
Gold $1 763.80
Plat $981.45
Plad $2 648.10
Rhod $18 990.00
Irid $5 390.00
Ruth $748.00
Copp $9 529.65
Brent $71.29
Iron Ore 62.5% $171.91
Coal API4 $131.00
Gold ZAR R25 863.30
Plat ZAR R14 391.39
Indicators brought to you by TreasuryONE
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