Solid performances from renewable energy firm Montauk Renewables, retailer Steinhoff, gold counters, and container leasing group Textainer among others managed to keep the JSE in the green, albeit barely with a 0.02% rise to 69,617.16 points.
Montauk, which specialises in the recovery and processing of biogas from non-fossil fuel sources, extended its recent bull run by another 15.63% gain ahead of its second-quarter results presentation on Monday. Textainer also added another 6.44% to yesterday’s 3.38%, while AngloGold (+5.46%) and Gold Fields (+6.10%) bounced back from yesterday’s drubbing.
Retailer Steinhoff had a good run, gaining 23.2% after announcing it was increasing its proposed lawsuit settlement offer by $217m, taking the total to $1.67bn.
Lender Nedbank dipped 1.14% despite posting a 147% rise in its half-year profit and declaring an interim dividend of 433 cents a share. Other banking counters showed mixed performances with Absa and Capitec losing 0.70% and 0.33% respectively, while Standard Bank gained 0.14%.
Among the biggest losers were Angloplat (-7.83%), Naspers (-3.83%), Quilter (-7.61%) and Massmart (-2.31%)
In the currency market, the rand flirted with the R14.90-level against the US dollar before clawing back some gains following US CPI numbers, which took some pressure off the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates sooner rather than later. The local unit was last trading at R14.66 to the greenback.
“We expect the rand to hover around these levels, but the impetus has turned a little, and a run in the short term to R14.50 should not be ruled out,” comments TreasuryONE.
Among commodities gold gained 1% following the inflation numbers and was last trading at
$1,745 an ounce. Platinum and palladium had mixed fortunes on the day, with the metals last changing hands at $1,014 and $2,622/oz respectively. Oil slipped, with Brent crude barely holding on to $70 a barrel.
Indicators as at 17:00
Currencies
USDZAR 14.7132
EURUSD 1.1738
EURZAR 17.2652
GBPUSD 1.3866
GBPZAR 20.3952
AUDZAR 10.8463
CADZAR 11.7652
CNYZAR 2.2697
ZARJPY 7.5057
CHFZAR 15.9635
USDAOA 637.97
Equities and bonds
R186 7.44%
US 10 Year 1.36%
JSE 0.01%
FTSE 0.73%
S&P 500 0.24%
Commodities
Gold $1 747.20
Plat $1 015.08
Plad $2 621.46
Rhod $18 990.00
Irid $5 290.00
Ruth $748.00
Copp $9 421.15
Brent $70.23
Iron Ore 62.5% $168.59
Coal API4 $131.00
Gold ZAR R25 698.34
Plat ZAR R14 930.10
Indicators brought to you by TreasuryONE
