Stocks struggle to find direction

The JSE closed higher on Monday, with banks and industrials giving back much of their midday gains as the market struggled to find a direction.

The stronger rand supported shares in companies with a local focus, while global diversified miners ended weaker. Rand hedges were mixed.

Capitec attracted buyers after the company said earlier it expected headline earnings per share for the year to end-February to grow by between 16% and 19%. Its shares gained 3% to R865.46.

Tiger Brands ended the day lower on reports that the source of the recent listeriosis outbreak was traced to its Enterprise meat factory in Polokwane. After losing almost 13% in intraday trade, it settled 7.44% lower on the day at R393.38.

The all share gained 0.29% to 57,912.40 points and the top 40 added 0.39%. General retailers rose 1.51%, banks 0.93%, industrials 0.69%, food and drug retailers 0.55% and financials 0.28%. Resources dropped 0.68% and property 0.52%.

Glencore fell 2.6% to R59.14 and Anglo American 1.5% to R275.69.

British American Tobacco lost 0.72% to R691.60, while Richemont added 0.31% to R103.86.

Resilient fell 5.13% to R59.33 and Fortress B 6.79% to R15.10. Naspers firmed 1.93% to R3,314.32. Though relatively steady on the day at about R12 to the dollar, the rand remained significantly weaker than it was a week ago, when it touched R11.51/$, its strongest point in three years. The local currency firmed to an intraday best level of R11.8706 and was at R11.8979 at the JSE’s close.

Earlier, the dollar came under pressure amid the possible eruption of global trade wars after US President Donald Trump tweeted that “trade wars were good”.

Bonds held steady for most of the day, with the R186 last bid at 8.195% from 8.17% previously.

Global risk remains in the spotlight after exit polls from Italian elections held on Sunday pointed to clear leads by anti-EU parties. German bunds were buoyed by the formal end to months of negotiations between major German parties over a coalition deal.

The top 40 Alsi futures index gained 0.62% to 50,980 points. The number of contracts traded was 23‚742 from Friday’s 23‚040.