The JSE is back in the red, slumping 1.49% as it tracked losses in Asia as a rally in Chinese tech companies ran out of steam and as delta worries and fading stimulus cast doubt over the global economic recovery.
A rout in the commodities market hit mining counters hard, with mining and metals counter South32 (-8.08%) leading the losses. Sibanye Stillwater lost 3.29%, Harmony 4.20%, Gold Fields 4.39% and Anglogold 3.38%.
Palladium plunged 5.52% in volatile trading, with platinum rebounding, but still on the back foot, down 1.38% to trade well below $1,000/oz. Gold also recuperated from the day’s lows to last trade -0.10% down at $1,792/oz.
Brent Crude, up more than 1% to last change hands at $72.53 a barrel, was the silver lining in the commodity space.
Sasol was steady at R214.25 a share, but Sasol BEE skid 15.20% to R106. Renewable energy stocks slumped, with Montauk losing 6.21% and Renergen 5.32%.
Container lease management company Textainer tanked 4.41% and entertainment counter Multichoice gave up 6.46%.
Among the winners were automotive play Motus (+ 4.86%), Steinhoff (+3.83%), Tongaat (+4.68%), Massmart (+2.57%) and Barloworld (+2.13%).
Momentum Metropolitan also gained, closing up 2.63% despite the company’s life insurance businesses paying out R10.7bn in death claims in the year to end-June, compared with an average of R5.6bn a year over the three years before the Covid-19pandemic. The diversified insurer said it made progress in boosting sales and will pay a dividend of 40 cents per ordinary share for the year.
On the currency front, the rand was on its own mission, trading stronger and stronger while other emerging markets have been on the back foot. But at the start of the US session, “we have seen the rand trade more in line with other emerging markets, retreating away from the R14.21 technical level”, comments TreasuryONE. The local unit was last trading at R14.25 against the US dollar as the US unit found renewed strength, looking to test 1.1800 against the euro.
“Across the board, we have seen the dollar pushing stronger, leading to the dollar index being back up at 92.700. US indices have opened in the red, indicating perhaps a slight tone of risk-off, which could explain the sell-off in the rest of the emerging markets,” says TreasuryONE.
Indicators as at 17:00
Currencies
USDZAR 14.2858
EURUSD 1.1806
EURZAR 16.8607
GBPUSD 1.3732
GBPZAR 19.6127
AUDZAR 10.4940
CADZAR 11.2108
CNYZAR 2.2098
ZARJPY 7.7216
CHFZAR 15.4830
USDAOA 631.27
Bonds and equities
R186 7.38%
US 10 Year 1.35%
JSE -1.50%
FTSE -0.70%
S&P 500 -0.29%
Commodities
Gold $1 786.64
Plat $980.25
Plad $2 235.10
Rhod $16 840.00
Irid $4 990.00
Ruth $693.00
Copp $9 255.85
Brent $72.30
Iron Ore 62.5% $138.99
Coal API4 $155.50
Gold ZAR R25 515.83
Plat ZAR R13 999.50
Indicators brought to you by TreasuryONE.
