JSE unchanged on Naspers fillip
The JSE all share closed unchanged on Friday, as Naspers supported the overall market while Steinhoff lost further ground in choppy trade.
Steinhoff started trade 0.4% lower at R6, but climbed to just below R10 in midday trade as buyers entered the market when the beleaguered retailer hit R5 a share. It then progressively lost traction again, ending the day where it started at R6.
Investors remain unconvinced about the recovery potential at Steinhoff, after ratings agency Moody’s slashed Steinhoff’s credit score to a “highly speculative” junk rating.
Steinhoff African Retail gained 2.94% to R17.50.
Naspers firmed 2.47% to R3,619,20 as Asian tech stocks rebounded in Hong Kong trade, led by Tencent.
The all share ended the day unchanged at 58,012.30 points, while the blue-chip top 40 rose marginally by 0.03%. Banks dropped 1.99%, financials 1.57%, general retailers 0.81%, and property 0.42%. Industrials added 0.59% and the gold index 0.34%.
The all share ended the week 2.42% lower, the second consecutive negative week, and the worst weekly retreat since mid-June. It is still 14.53% up for 2017, however. PSG closed 7.26% lower at R249. FirstRand fell 3% to R55.65, Capitec 1.76% to R933.03, and Standard Bank 1.68% to R176.42.
The rand was at R13.6341 to the dollar from R13.7239 soon after the JSE’s close. It recovered from a low of R13.7616 after better-than-expected, US nonfarm payroll data supported the dollar.
The US created 228,000 jobs in November in another sign the economy is running at full tilt, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Economists polled by MarketWatch had predicted a 200,000 increase in non-farm jobs. The unemployment rate stayed the same at 4.1%, while worker pay increased 2.5% from November 2016 to November 2017.
Domestic bonds failed to find direction from the volatile rand, with the R186 bid at 9.26% from 9.23%. The R207 was bid at 8.11% from 8.085%. The US 10-year bond was at 2.3709% from 2.3634%.
The top-40 Alsi futures index gained 0.05% to 51‚798 points. The number of contracts traded was 22,517 from Thursday’s 21,795.