All share remains above milestone
The JSE all share closed a little weaker on Wednesday as platinums and industrials pulled the market lower, while banks, financials and property stocks gained.
The all share closed above 60,000 points for the second consecutive session, albeit a little way off the record set on Tuesday.
Market heavyweight Naspers was down for the first time in four sessions, while banks were boosted by FirstRand and Standard.
General retailers were up despite another sharp drop in Steinhoff, after Reuters claimed in a report that the company did not tell investors about almost $1bn in transactions with a related company, as required by regulators in Germany, where it has a primary listing.
The all share closed 0.17% lower at 60,078 points and the blue-chip top 40 lost 0.19%. Platinums dropped 1.09% and industrials 0.51%. The gold index rose 0.90%, banks 0.82%, food and drug retailers 0.70%, financials 0.58% and property 0.37%.
In the absence of key catalysts, markets appeared content to book profits in some of the recent highflying stocks. Sasol closed 0.97% lower at R430.84, with Brent crude having lost 0.46% to $63.21 a barrel soon after the JSE’s close. Kumba Iron Ore dropped 2.67% to R292.
Brait rebounded 2.8% to R491.20 after saying in a trading statement that its UK clothing chain, New Look, remained solvent.
Steinhoff slumped 4.2% to R59.30.
Naspers gave up 2.03% to R3,558.99. It was earlier reported that Chinese internet company Tencent, of which Naspers owns about a third, had bought 12% of Snapchat’s parent company, Snap.
The rand was marginally firmer in late trade, at R14.1671/$ from R14.2307/$, as political concern kept the local currency on the back foot.
Local bonds were under pressure on increased concern that government overspending may result in further downgrades of SA’s sovereign debt later in November.
The benchmark R186 government bond was last bid at 9.28% from 9.18% and the R207 at 8% from 7.89%.
The top-40 Alsi futures index dropped 0.29% to 54,138 points. The number of contracts traded was 17‚285 from Tuesday’s 17‚660.