JSE ends record-breaking charge

After two days of record-high closures, the JSE all share was lower on Wednesday, with mining stocks and industrials losing momentum as the Dow Jones crossed the 22,000-point mark for the first time.

The Dow had not held on to its level by the JSE’s close, despite reflecting Apple’s upbeat results. European markets retreated at the close. Brent crude was lifted 1.28% to $51.97 a barrel.

Rand hedges delivered a subdued performance on the day as the rand remained at weaker levels despite the dollar losing 0.5% against the euro, to $1.186. Banks edged higher on mixed interim results from Nedbank.

The all share closed 0.34% lower at 55,200.50 points and the blue-chip top 40 lost 0.46%. The gold index shed 1.74%, resources 1.24%, platinums 0.05% and industrials 0.33%. Food and drug retailers rose 0.86%, financials 0.38% and banks 0.25%.

Among the big miners, BHP lost 2.14%, to R235.36, Anglo American shed 1.56% and Glencore 1.51%.

British American Tobacco edged 0.14% up to R843.22.

Nedbank closed 0.2% higher at R218.11 in choppy trade. The bank reported a drop of 2.9% in headline earnings for the six months to endJune. Impairments were down 27.9%, to R1.5bn, but losses at Ecobank swelled to R1.1bn, from R603m.

Capitec rose 0.65%, to R864.60 after hitting a record R870 earlier in the week. Naspers fell 2.01%, to R2,850. Among gold stocks, AngloGold Ashanti was off 3.88% at R127,95, Harmony 3.42% at R22.84 and Gold Fields 1.43% at R52.24.

The rand was at R13.2408 to the dollar after the JSE’s close after weakening to R13.3193 in intraday trade.

Analysts said the foreign exchange market was eyeing US nonfarm payroll data set to be released on Friday. A better-than-expected figure would support a stronger dollar.

Bonds were steady, with the R186 bid at 8.605%, from 8.61%.

The top 40 Alsi futures index shed 0.09%, to 49,061 points as 22,193 contracts traded from Tuesday’s 27‚166.