As investors continue to assess the effects of China’s covid-19 policies and the latest US Federal Reserve outlook, the JSE was little changed during morning trade before closing 0.42% higher on Tuesday.
The bourse greeted mixed Asian markets when it opened with reports indicating that China may tighten covid-19 restrictions following a string of coronavirus deaths in the country.
Global stocks climbed higher, recovering the previous day’s losses as investors regained risk appetite and drove flows into equities and commodities but concerns over how China will respond to its coronavirus outbreak tempered gains.
In the currency market, the rand is trading little changed today and is expected to remain within the R17.20/R17.55 range against the dollar for now, according to forex trading house TreasuryONE.
“We have several Fed Governors talking later this evening ahead of a host of US economic data due out tomorrow, and we expect the hawkish tone to remain,” says TreasuryONE.
In company news, Momentum Metropolitan (4.73%) said it expects headline earnings to surge as it bounces back from the pandemic. The life insurer said headline earnings jumped 73.3% year on year to R1.23 billion for the three months to end-September.
Pepkor (-1.57%) said it would increase its dividend by close to a quarter with profit growing but the retailer has been hard hit by load-shedding with fewer trading hours due to blackouts. The retailer declared a dividend of 55 cents per share while profit jumped to R6.1 billion for the year to end-September.
