A carnage in mining shares weighed heavily on the JSE which only came online after lunchtime following a delay in trade due to record trading volumes in the previous session.
The JSE said in a statement it was experiencing significant delays in processing significantly high trading volumes after a record day of value traded in equities – R145bn vs R71bn in December 2017. This was due to investors adjusting their holdings in local market giant Naspers after it completed its share swap deal with Prosus.
Bloomberg reports the delay meant investors in Naspers, the biggest shareholder in Tencent Holdings, were unable to trade in reaction to earnings from the Chinese online titan released after the market close in Hong Kong.
Naspers, which lost more than 8% yesterday following the completion of the deal which changed the weighting of the two stocks in key equity indices, however, gained 4.11%, while Prosus added 2.52%.
Old Mutual gained 4.16% despite warning of an estimated drop of up to 31% in first-half profit and flagging a steep R2bn increase in provisions to cushion the blow from claims arising from a third and fourth wave of coronavirus infections.
Bytes Technology (+4.53%), PSG (+3.97%), Sasol (+0.7%) and Transaction Capital (+3.17%) also gained.
But it was significant losses in mining stocks that led the JSE to close 1.5% in the red. Kumba Iron Ore (-12.66%) led the declines after iron ore in Singapore plunged by a third since spiking to an all-time high in May. BHP plunged 6.95% and Anglo American gave up 8.28% after Coronation Asset Management cut its holding in the miner to 2.98%.
Gold counters Harmony (-5.77%) and AngloGold (-4.64%) were also among the biggest losers as precious metals dulled. Palladium plunged 2% to last trade at $2,430/oz, while platinum and gold weakened to $996 and $1,780/oz respectively.
In the currency market it was a case of déjà vu for the rand which followed the same pattern it did in the previous session – weakening initially in early trade before staging a little comeback just to be pushed back as soon as the US markets opened. “The local unit is hovering around yesterday’s highs of R14.98, but we expect the rand to break out of its current ranges tonight with the release of the minutes of the previous FOMC meeting,” comments TreasuryONE.
“Should the Fed indicate that there could be a rate hike sooner than expected, we could see the rand above R15.00 when we walk in tomorrow morning, but a dovish tone could see the rand fighting back from the top end of the range.”
Indicators as at 17:00
Currencies
USDZAR 14.9581
EURUSD 1.1710
EURZAR 17.5107
GBPUSD 1.3756
GBPZAR 20.5702
AUDZAR 10.8204
CADZAR 11.8416
CNYZAR 2.3052
ZARJPY 7.3407
CHFZAR 16.2911
USDAOA 638.88
Equities and bonds
R186 7.30%
US 10 Year 1.28%
JSE -1.14%
FTSE -0.34%
S&P 500 0.07%
Commodities
Gold $1 780.91
Plat $996.13
Plad $2 434.77
Rhod $18 990.00
Irid $5 190.00
Ruth $723.00
Copp $9 148.65
Brent $68.96
Iron Ore 62.5% $167.34
Coal API4 $141.00
Gold ZAR R26 631.02
Plat ZAR R14 895.73
Indicators brought to you by TreasuryONE
