The JSE has breached the critical 71,000-point level for another record as commodity and energy stocks pile up the gains.
Energy counter Sasol surged 6.94% after executives told the company’s AGM that its Lake Charles chemicals project is insured against any possible claims resulting from a class action case in the US, and that they will suffer no personal loss. The energy and chemicals group also said this week it aims to begin producing green hydrogen in Sasolburg from 2023.
A bounce in the oil price above $81 a barrel also lent support.
Increasing demand for coal in Europe ahead of the winter boosted Thungela Resources (+5.57%), Glencore (+1.02%) and Exxaro (+1.34%). Other miners benefiting were Anglo American (+1.22%), BHP (+3.40%) and Kumba Iron Ore (+4.46%).
Sappi added 3.92% after the paper maker boosted investor confidence with its announcement of conditional share awards worth more than R40m to its directors and company secretary.
Investors also welcomed mobile operator MTN’s announcement that its plan to sell 575 million ordinary shares in MTN Nigeria was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The share price gained 3.25%.
On the downside, Naspers lost 3.27% and Prosus 1.21% as the pair, which has exposure to Tencent, tracked losses in the Chinese tech giant. Prosus meanwhile has turned its sights on fast-growing online car dealers as part of its e-commerce expansion push. Chief Executive Officer Bob Van Dijk told Bloomberg that the Dutch company will use some of its surplus cash to add scale organically to the global auto business.
Old Mutual recuperated some of its earlier losses but still closed down 1.62% after the financial services group reported that it had used a further R4.9bn of its Covid-19 reserves. It said it yet again underestimated the level of death claims it would experience, leaving just R1bn remaining. Momentum Metropolitan Holdings (-1.43%) also reported that its Momentum Life and Momentum Metropolitan Africa divisions were most severely impacted by Covid-19 related claims.
In the commodities market, platinum got hammered down 3.5%, while gold and palladium also lost a fair amount, with both down almost 1%.
On the forex front, the lira’s freefall to its worst level in 20 years placed a drag on other emerging market currencies. “The lira slipped from 11.40 to 13.20 today after President Erdogan sparked another sell-off with comments of support towards lower interest rates before settling around 12.40. Furthermore, concerns over Covid numbers and a weaker expectation of European GDP growth keep the safe-haven dollar on the front foot,” comments TreasuryONE.
The local unit breached R15.90 in intraday trade but has since reversed losses to last trade at R15.80 against the US dollar.
Indicators as at 17:00
Currencies
USDZAR 15.8456
EURUSD 1.1247
EURZAR 17.8161
GBPUSD 1.3373
GBPZAR 21.1839
AUDZAR 11.4450
CADZAR 12.4691
CNYZAR 2.4782
ZARJPY 7.2594
CHFZAR 16.9711
USDAOA 593.91
Bonds and equities
R186 8.10%
US 10 Year 1.65%
JSE -0.01%
FTSE 0.37%
S&P 500 -0.05%
Commodities
Gold $1 790.35
Plat $970.32
Plad $1 926.65
Rhod $14 190.00
Irid $4 390.00
Ruth $598.00
Copp $9 825.50
Brent $81.73
Iron Ore 62.5% $93.39
Coal API4 $138.00
Gold ZAR R28 361.83
Plat ZAR R15 371.32
