The JSE extended its gains following the long weekend, with huge share price moves in the listed heavyweights. The almost 11% jump in Naspers and Prosus outweighed a significant decline in gold mining shares, tilting the scale in favour of a 1.35% gain in the All Share index to 69,602.04 points.
Naspers (+10.65%) and Prosus (+10.29%) tracked gains in Chinese tech stocks after brokers said investors were making an attempt to find a bottom in prices after the recent selloff. Naspers has a 29% exposure via Prosus to tech giant Tencent, which gained 5.3% in Asian trade earlier today.
Gains in diversified miners Anglo American (+1.76%), BHP (+1.71%) and Glencore (+2.43%), renewable energy company Montauk (+7.69%), container leasing group Textainer (+3.38%) and the former Old Mutual Wealth investment manager Quilter (+3.18%) added to the winner board.
Bank stocks Absa (-1.49%), Nedbank (-1.33%) and Standard Bank (-0.17%) failed to cash in on the weaker rand, which was last trading down 1.81% against the US dollar at R14.81, but rand-hedges British American Tobacco (+1.19%) and Richemont (+0.06%) gained.
Gold stocks were the biggest losers as the gold price continued to slide after solid US jobs data fuelled fears that the US Federal Reserve may hike interest rates sooner than expected. AngloGold gave up 8.05%, DRDGold 7.86%, Harmony 6.66% and Gold Fields 4.74% as gold dipped 0.53% to last trade at $1732.37/oz.
Italtile dipped 5.54%.
In the forex market, emerging markets remain vulnerable following the US jobs data. “We should continue to track movements in the dollar, as the market remains bullish on dollar fundamentals,” comments TreasuryONE. The euro is trading at multiple week lows against the US currency, last trading weaker below 1.1720.
Palladium was the biggest gainer in the commodities market, adding 2% to last trade at $2,655/oz, while platinum was changing hands close to the $1,000 mark. Brent Crude is back at the $71 a barrel.
Indicators as at 17:00
Currencies
USDZAR 14.8277
EURUSD 1.1719
EURZAR 17.3714
GBPUSD 1.3849
GBPZAR 20.5288
AUDZAR 10.8892
CADZAR 11.8397
CNYZAR 2.2851
ZARJPY 7.4524
CHFZAR 16.0686
Equities and bonds
USDAOA 639.25
R186 7.44%
US 10 Year 1.34%
JSE 1.47%
FTSE 0.35%
S&P 500 0.19%
Commodities
Gold $1 725.49
Plat $991.07
Plad $2 658.68
Rhod $18 990.00
Irid $5 290.00
Ruth $748.00
Copp $9 409.50
Brent $70.97
Iron Ore 62.5% $173.52
Coal API4 $131.00
Gold ZAR R25 589.53
Plat ZAR R14 697.87
Indicators brought to you by TreasuryONE
