Rebound by retailers falls short

A strong performance from retailers on Wednesday was not enough for the JSE to close in positive territory as resources and industrials dragged down the all-share index.

A strong performance from retailers on Wednesday was not enough for the JSE to close in positive territory as resources and industrials dragged down the all-share index.

The rand gained more than 1% after retail sales data for April surprised on the upside. Annual retail sales growth accelerated to 1.5% in April, higher than the market’s forecast of 0.6%, from 0.9% in March.

This caused a rebound in retailers’ share prices, with the food and drug retailer index gaining 1.47% and general retailers 0.90%.

Among the stars were TFG adding 2.32% to R144.23, Mr Price 0.84% to R163 and Shoprite 3.12% to R204.17. The all share ended the day 0.26% lower at 51,489.20 points. Resources shed 1.33% and industrials 0.18%. Banks and financials rose slightly.

Lower oil prices pulled other commodities down. Anglo American ended the day down 2.85% at R171.17 and BHP lost 2.15% to R191.04. Brent was 3% lower at $46.82 a barrel, its lowest level since November 2016. Gold Fields was up 1.58%, to R46.93 and Impala Platinum 1.38%, to R37.39.

Barclays Africa rose 0.66% to R148.65 and Old Mutual 2.31% to R33.25. Brait rebounded 2.38% to R64 after falling more than 4% on Tuesday.

Massmart gained 2.41% to R110.70 and Shoprite 3.12% to R204.17.

Pharmaceutical group Aspen rose 0.55% to R276.50.

The rand was at R12.6073/$ in evening trade after firming to an intraday best of R12.5867/$, from Tuesday’s R12.7572/$. The firmer rand was due to a weaker dollar ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s interest statement. It is expected to raise rates by 25 basis points, while its commentary is likely to be more dovish.

Bonds strengthened in line with the rand, with the R186 last bid at 8.39%, from 8.42%.

Futures were weaker on the lower JSE close. At 5.55pm‚ the near-dated, top-40 Alsi futures index was 0.48% lower at 45‚060 points, with 107,708 contracts traded from Tuesday’s 133‚359.