Shares on the JSE showed a mixed performance, with further gains in Naspers and Prosus tilting the bourse 0.18% in the green at 66,894.79 points.
An analyst report today on Seeking Alpha describing Naspers (+1.52%) as “a spawner with an impressive track record”, said the stock trades at a large discount to the company’s NAV, providing a margin of safety for value investors. Prosus added 2.56%.
Commodity stocks tracked the mixed bag of metal prices. Gold and PGM stocks were up following a 0.79% and 1.39% rise in the respective metal prices to $1,784 and $1,057/oz. Leading the gains were Harmony (+3.09%), Anglogold (+2.35%), Gold Fields (+1.82%) and DRDGold (+1.57%). BHP (-0.73%) and Glencore (-0.67%) lost ground.
Brent Crude, which staged a comeback to test intraday highs of $85.37 a barrel, retreated to last trade at $84.53. Sasol (+0.04%) ended the day flat after a volatile trading session.
Chemicals group AECI gained 2.59%.
Pick ‘n Pay rang up 1.94% after increasing half-year headline earnings by 40% and almost doubling its interim dividend.
Building materials group Brikor gained almost 50%, while PPC lost 2.67%.
Among the losers were Growth Point (-4.57%), Super Group (-3.78%) and Textainer (-3.58%)
On the forex front, the rand had a robust run on a sluggish dollar and as local consumer inflation data gave the market food for thought of a possible rate hike in the near future. “This [rate] expectation rippled through the market and saw the rand touching R14.40 before taking its foot off the accelerator and backing up to R14.45. The US dollar also weakened a little today, which also helped the case for a stronger rand,” comments TreasuryONE.
The forex trading house, however, does expect emerging market currencies “to start running out of steam as the current move feels overdone, and it is only a matter of time before the US dollar awakes from its malaise”. The local unit was last trading at R14.43/$.
In the crypto market, Bitcoin rallied to a record, topping $66,000 as the successful launch of the first exchange-traded fund for US investors fueled a buying frenzy.
Indicators as at 17:00
Currencies
USDZAR 14.4526
EURUSD 1.1649
EURZAR 16.8308
GBPUSD 1.3819
GBPZAR 19.9661
AUDZAR 10.8521
CADZAR 11.7256
CNYZAR 2.2598
ZARJPY 7.9059
CHFZAR 15.7047
USDAOA 596.53
Bonds and equities
R186 7.88%
US 10 Year 1.64%
JSE -0.12%
FTSE -0.02%
S&P 500 0.39%
Commodities
Gold $1 781.90
Plat $1 045.85
Plad $2 061.66
Rhod $13 990.00
Irid $4 590.00
Ruth $628.00
Copp $10 160.00
Brent $85.33
Iron Ore 62.5% $123.30
Coal API4 $245.75
Gold ZAR R25 747.03
Plat ZAR R15 111.75
