The JSE tracked global stocks higher as hawkish comments by Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell on higher inflation and adapting monetary policy gave commodities a boost.
Platinum’s 1.5% gain to $955.15/oz lifted PGM counters, with Angloplat gaining 4.55%, RBPlats 4.32%, Implats 4.18% and Northam 0.45%. Gold counters were mixed amid gold’s 0.54% rise to last trade $1,784.62/oz, with Anglogold (+2.84%) and Harmony (+1.86%) gaining and Gold Fields (-1.74%) and DRDGold (-0.34%) losing.
Other heavyweight miners Anglo American (+0.79%), Exxaro (+0.86%) and Glencore (+0.22%) also supported the bourse.
Brent Crude surged to almost $72 a barrel before backtracking to last trade at $70.88 a barrel, still 0.44% higher than its previous close. Sasol piled another 3.82% on top of its recent gains.
Global food services group Bidcorp gained 1.99% after posting record trading numbers, albeit not across the board, for the four months to end-October. The firm said its UK, European and emerging markets businesses have all had a good start to the financial year as most of these markets rebounded to pre-Covid levels or above, while lockdowns weighed on its Australasian businesses. Peer RCL Foods gained 5%.
MTN dialled in a 4.42% gain after the SA-based telecoms provider looked to sell down its holdings in MTN Nigeria with the first phase of a share sale to retail investors. MTN Nigeria, however, fell 10% after it set a retail public offer price that was lower than its share price on the stock market.
Discovery gained 4.25% after directors of its major subsidiaries accepted annual awards of ordinary shares linked to performance. The healthcare and financial services provider also said it was pushing for its remaining 500 employees (6%) to get vaccinated before its January 2022 deadline.
Aspen Pharmacare continued its run with a 1.96% gain after the company said it aims to make enough Covid-19 vaccines for every single person in Africa.
Heavyweight tech plays Naspers (+0.45%) and Prosus (+1.21%), which make up 12% of the All Share index, also contributed to tipping the JSE back above the 71,000-point level. The index ended the day 1.03% higher at 71,198.08 points.
In the red, Montauk Renewables (-4.01%) continued its slide from an oversold position, while Textainer lost 3.26% despite going ex-div tomorrow.
In the forex markets, the rand continued to win back some of the lost ground of the past couple of weeks at the expense of the weaker dollar. The unit touched R15.73 against the US dollar in intraday trade before moving back to last trade at R15.92 to the greenback. “The rand and other EMs strengthened on the back of a weaker US dollar. We expect the momentum to continue, but we are not convinced that the move will be sudden unless there are any new developments on the COVID front or news from the Fed. We do believe the rand has shifted its range with the new range in which the rand will be happy being the R15.40-R16.40 [range]”, comments TreasuryONE.
Indicators as at 17:00
Currencies
USDZAR 15.7983
EURUSD 1.1348
EURZAR 17.9238
GBPUSD 1.3344
GBPZAR 21.0714
AUDZAR 11.3033
CADZAR 12.3898
CNYZAR 2.4798
ZARJPY 7.1449
CHFZAR 17.2119
USDAOA 583.00
Bonds and equities
R186 8.06%
US 10 Year 1.48%
JSE 0.77%
FTSE 1.04%
S&P 500 1.10%
Commodities
Gold $1 789.49
Plat $946.48
Plad $1 744.05
Rhod $13 890.00
Irid $4 140.00
Ruth $578.00
Copp $9 570.25
Brent $71.03
Iron Ore 62.5% $102.53
Coal API4 $141.00
Gold ZAR R28 254.08
Plat ZAR R14 943.88
