The JSE reversed earlier gains to end the day narrowly in the red as losers across the board outweighed the winners. Among the losers were heavyweights Naspers (-2.67%) and Prosus (-2.87%), which together have a 14% weighting in the All Share index. The benchmark index closed down 0.10% at 66,980.45 points.
Other big losers included Cartrack owner Karooooo (-4.33%) and Bytes Technology (-4.00%). Gold counters were dull despite the gold price breaking above $1,800 (last trading up 0.84% at $1,807.90), with Sibanye Stillwater losing 5.08%, Gold Fields 2.57% and Harmony 2.01%. DRDGold was down 1.01% despite posting positive quarterly results and holding cash and cash equivalents on hand of R1.9bn at end-September.
The bullish performance of platinum and palladium – last up 2.41% at $1,069 and 1.26% at $2,052 respectively – supported PGM stocks, with Angloplat gaining 2.81%, Royal Bafokeng 1.84%, Northam 1.01% and Implats 0.51%. Heavyweights Anglo American (+2.04%) and BHP (+1.52%) also gained.
Container management company Textainer was a star performer, adding 4.92% following “buy” recommendations from at least two analysts on the back of global supply chain disruptions and surging freight costs.
Energy counters were mixed, with Renergen (+1.37%) still floating on helium optimism and Sasol slipping as oil failed to find a firm footing above $85 a barrel.
Aspen Pharmacare ended the day 0.90% higher in brisk trade after saying it aims to ramp up its Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity to 1.3 billion doses a year by February 2024, up from a current annual output of around 250 million doses.
On the currency front, the rand seesawed, taking in a stronger position despite the stronger dollar. “The reason for this is that the rand was caught up in a bit of Turkish contagion after the lira again weakened to its worst level yet against the US dollar. In the recent trading session, we have seen that the lira has staged a little bit of a comeback, which has filtered through to the rand,” comments TreasuryONE.
The unit was last changing hands at R14.69/$ after touching R14.87 in early morning trade.
Indicators as at 17:00
Currencies
USDZAR 14.7304
EURUSD 1.1609
EURZAR 17.0954
GBPUSD 1.3758
GBPZAR 20.2600
AUDZAR 11.0327
CADZAR 11.9008
CNYZAR 2.3059
ZARJPY 7.7111
CHFZAR 16.0117
USDAOA 596.44
Bonds and equities
R186 8.00%
US 10 Year 1.63%
JSE 0.03%
FTSE 0.23%
S&P 500 0.17%
Commodities
Gold $1 806.66
Plat $1 058.78
Plad $2 046.28
Rhod $13 990.00
Irid $4 590.00
Ruth $618.00
Copp $10 050.15
Brent $86.28
Iron Ore 62.5% $122.50
Coal API4 $221.00
Gold ZAR R26 587.71
Plat ZAR R15 581.54
