The JSE ploughed back above 70,000 points as calm returned to the markets after last week’s omicron scare, while a R43bn counter bid for RBPlats also supported the 2.03% jump in the All Share index.
Investors drew confidence from scientists reassuring that although the new Covd variant spread more easily, existing vaccines are likely to protect against severe illness. Bloomberg also reports that BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are working to adapt their Covid-19 shots to address the latest variant, with the German partner of Pfizer noting it could have a new version within 100 days if necessary.
Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) saw its share price race 16.53% higher after Implats stepped up the bidding war with Northam with a R43.4bn offer, reigniting its more than 10-year-old ambition to gain control of the smaller platinum producer. Implats’ offer of R150 in cash and shares to RBPlat shareholders comes after Northam earlier this month agreed to pay R180 a share for a 32.8% stake in RBPlat, thwarting Implats’ initial approach. Implats already bought almost a quarter of the company’s shares in the open market.
Implats, which gained 6.07%, said its offer – a 24% premium to RBPlat’s closing price on Friday – provided “compelling value” for shareholders. Northam closed the day 5.61% higher.
Bytes Technology was up 15.37% as the tech group continues to draw investor support as a stand-alone dual-listed counter. Business Day reported that Altron made a big move with listing its former subsidiary Bytes on the London Stock Exchange in December, with a secondary inward listing on the JSE, after a demerger that created R13bn in value for its shareholders. Bytes last week also signed a deal with BlueVoyant to offer the latter’s cloud-native third-party cyber risk management solutions to its enterprise and public sector clients.
Hotel and drug stocks lifted their heads, with Sun International gaining 12.55%, City Lodge 9.24%, Aspen Pharmacare 5.58%, Clicks 2.52% and Dis-Chem 2.09%. Tsogo Sun bucked the trend, losing 2.55%. Aspen said earlier today that it was in advanced talks over a potential licensing agreement to package the Covid-19 vaccine in South Africa.
Financial services counters also recovered from their battering on Friday, with Nedcor adding 6.17%, Absa 5.58%, Standard Bank 4.92% and Rand Merchant Bank 4.51%. Sanlam and Santam were also among the big winners, gaining 4.97% and 4.73% respectively.
Among the losers were Naspers (-2.06%), Prosus (-2.83%) and Montauk (-3.80%).
On the forex front, with the fires momentarily subsiding around omicron, the rand traded in a reasonably sideways manner within a 15c range for the day. “The fact that the US dollar is slightly stronger today surely stopped the rand from gaining more ground. Looking at the EM markets, we still see the rand labouring behind other EM currencies, which indicates that while the market is breathing a sigh of relief, the rand is still looking vulnerable as we await further data of the new variant,” comments TreasuryONE.
The local unit was last trading at R16.15 against the dollar.
Commodities have been on the front foot, with gold the only significant commodity currently losing ground, says the forex trading house. “This shows that the market has mostly shrugged off the moves from Friday.” Gold is trading at $1,787 per ounce, while platinum and palladium are trading at $966 and $1,803/oz, respectively.
Sasol (+4.48%) tracked Brent Crude’s 5% surge to $76.34 a barrel.
Indicator as at 17:00
Currencies
USDZAR 16.1865
EURUSD 1.1264
EURZAR 18.2270
GBPUSD 1.3298
GBPZAR 21.5183
AUDZAR 11.5456
CADZAR 12.6755
CNYZAR 2.5320
ZARJPY 7.0293
CHFZAR 17.4823
USDAOA 585.41
Bonds and equities
R186 8.13%
US 10 Year 1.55%
JSE 2.02%
FTSE 1.41%
S&P 500 0.93%
Commodities
Gold $1 786.93
Plat $967.65
Plad $1 804.90
Rhod $13 690.00
Irid $4 290.00
Ruth $588.00
Copp $9 750.85
Brent $76.06
Iron Ore 62.5% $94.44
Coal API4 $164.00
Gold ZAR R28 918.78
Plat ZAR R15 659.96
