Negative sentiment on ANC stance

The JSE closed firmer on Wednesday as a weaker rand provided a fillip for miners and resources, but exerted further pressure on banks, general retailers and financials.

Sentiment on shares with a local bias, such as banks, general retailers and property, was negative, following the ANC national working committee’s decision to support President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet reshuffle.

This was despite widespread calls for his resignation after he dismissed Pravin Gordhan as finance minister last week. ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said on Wednesday that public disagreement by ANC officials about the reshuffle was a mistake and would not happen again.

Sentiment was further clouded after the Treasury confirmed that director-general Lungisa Fuzile was set to leave the department.

The all share closed 0.63% higher at 52,990.10 points and the blue-chip top 40 added 0.88%. Platinums firmed 4.5%, resources rose 3.41% and the gold index added 3.03%. Industrials added 0.50%. Banks closed 2.38% lower, general retailers lost 2.02% and financials dropped 1.78%.

Kumba Iron Ore rocketed 7.81%, to R230.32.

AngloGold Ashanti was up 4.28%, to R162.35. Lonmin jumped 32.81%, to R19.35. Rand hedges were firm favourites with British American Tobacco jumping 3.41%. Anheuser-Busch InBev added 2.52%, to R1,529.51.

Barclays Africa fell 3.91% to R138.50 and Standard Bank 2.75%, to R138.75.

Sanlam ended the day 6.74% lower at R63 on ex-dividend trade. Steinhoff gained 4.88%, to R67.75. The rand weakened to an intra-day low of R13.86/$, but recovered slightly in late trade, to about R13.75/$. It closed at R13.6015 on Tuesday.

Local bonds were also softer, with the benchmark R186 bid at 8.99%, from 8.90% previously.

At 5.48pm, the local near-dated top-40 Alsi futures index was 0.85% higher at 46‚720 points. The number of contracts traded was 25,809 from Tuesday’s 28,689. /