The JSE gave up its earlier gains to end the day 0.30% in the red at 70,807.60 points following a mixed US jobs data report and amid omicron jitters.
Commodities had a good day, with gold rebounding 0.50% to $1,776.49/oz and palladium 1.18% to $1,805.50. Platinum, however, lost 0.96% to last trade at $932.00/oz. Brent crude, however, was the star, gaining 3.75% to $73 a barrel at the close of the local trading session. The black gold was last changing hands 1.52% higher at $71.54 a barrel.
Sasol gained 1.13%.
Takeover target Royal Bafokeng lost 4.11% as investors took profit after the platinum stock’s recent run amid a bidding war between Amplats’ (-1.36%) and Northam (-0.23%). Miningmx reports Amplats has made progress this week as it seeks a foothold in RBPlat ahead of its general share offer planned for January. As of yesterday, Amplats owns 31.9% of RBPlat. On 29 November it was holding a 24.5% share.
Anglo American lost 2.92% and BHP, which gained board approval on its proposal to scrap its dual-listed structure, dipped 2.28%.
Heavyweights Prosus and Naspers, which together hold a 12% weighting in the All Share index also weighed the bourse down, with a loss of 2.15% and 0.81% respectively.
On the upside, Absa gained 4.24% after saying it expects annual profit to more than double in the year to end-December amid strong credit growth in the 10 months to October and a slight drop in bad debts. Peers Invested (+3.45%), Standard Bank (+0.23%) and Capitec (+0.02%) gained, while FNB parent FirtsRand (-0.17%) and Nedbank (-0.24%) dipped.
Montauk Renewables gained 7.06% as opportunities for renewable natural gas open up in Pittsburg and after an investment analyst upgraded the stock to a buy towards the end of last week. Bloomberg also reported that global power generation was seeing a major transition toward renewable sources.
Net1 UEPS surged 12.68% as the tech counter looks to expand with a definitive agreement to buy the Connect Group, one of SA’s fastest-growing fintech businesses for R3.7bn.
In the forex market, the rand was trading in a narrow 25c range before firming to R15.79 against the US dollar following the release of the US nonfarm payrolls print, which came in much lower than expected at 210,000 versus the 510,000 expected. The data showed US unemployment dropped to 4.2% from the previous 4.6%.
However, omicron fears weighed heavily on emerging market currencies pushing the rand back to last trade at R16.09 against the greenback.
Indicators as at 17:00
Currencies
USDZAR 15.9782
EURUSD 1.1291
EURZAR 18.0349
GBPUSD 1.3248
GBPZAR 21.1637
AUDZAR 11.2337
CADZAR 12.5002
CNYZAR 2.5050
ZARJPY 7.0921
CHFZAR 17.3660
USDAOA 582.42
Bonds and equities
R186 7.96%
US 10 Year 1.45%
JSE 0.02%
FTSE 0.33%
S&P 500 0.28%
Commodities
Gold $1 768.01
Plat $937.03
Plad $1 809.18
Rhod $13 990.00
Irid $4 140.00
Ruth $568.00
Copp $9 512.15
Brent $72.20
Iron Ore 62.5% $101.82
Coal API4 $141.00
Gold ZAR R28 266.59
Plat ZAR R14 981.05
