JSE accelerates on Chinese data

The JSE recorded its best day of 2017 on Friday as Chinese export data boosted the market. The rand was a little weaker in the early evening but spent the day in a fairly tight range.

Import and export data from China reflected double-digit growth and so allayed some concern about lower Chinese GDP growth. This was a boon for resource shares.

The all share closed 1.51% higher at 52,687.30 points and the blue-chip top 40 rose 1.65%. Banks gained 2.27%, general retailers 2.03%, food and drug retailers 1.87%, financials 1.61% and property 1.24%. The gold index shed 2.03% and platinums dropped 0.97%.

The all share ended the week 0.81% higher and has gained 4.02% in 2017.

Anglo American led global miners higher, adding 4.36% to R225.41. Glencore gained 3.89% to R53.71.

Sasol was lifted 1.08% to R390.17 and Richemont 1.09% to R100.55.

Gold Fields retreated 3.4% to end at R45.40 and Impala Platinum lost 2.28% to R53.14.

Nedbank led the surge in the banking sector, gaining 2.8% to R238. FirstRand added 2.47% to R51.03 and Standard Bank 2.45% to R144.52.

Old Mutual was up 1.56% to R35.18 and Sanlam 3.22% to R64.82.

Mr Price led the gains in retailers with a 3.25% rise to R167.81 while Woolworths put on 2.87% to R73.44.

Dis-Chem slumped 3.89% to R23.75 after earlier announcing that group turnover was up 13% for the 22 weeks to January 29.

Among property heavyweights, Growthpoint added 2.01% to R26.36, Redefine 2.19% to R11.18 and Hyprop 2.16% to R120.86.

MTN rose 1.92% to R118.87 and Naspers 1.66% to R2,177.54.

At 6.27pm, the rand was at R13.4079 to the dollar from Thursday’s R13.3860, while the benchmark R186 bond was last bid at 8.76% from 8.785% previously.

Futures tracked the JSE higher, with the near-dated top 40 all-share futures index up 1.58% to 45,960 points with 32,792 contracts traded from Thursday’s 20,633.