All share rises on better sentiment
The JSE closed higher on Tuesday, with big counters faring best, while gold miners came under pressure as interest in safe-haven assets waned.
Sentiment was lifted by a speech earlier by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who pledged to undertake further measures to open up the Chinese economy to global trade.
The rand was somewhat choppy, giving up earlier gains in late trade after US producer inflation surprised to the upside.
Locally, manufacturing data for February surprised to the downside, suggestive of SA’s patchy recovery, analysts said. SA’s manufacturing sector was too exposed to the whims of domestic demand, which has yet to gain traction, and the stronger currency of late has been a headwind to exporters, said FNB senior economic analyst Jason Muscat.
The all share closed 1.17% higher at 56,747.2 points and the top 40 added 1.31%. Resources added 2.55%, banks 0.87% and financials 0.73%. Gold miners dropped 1.91%. Anglo American leapt 5.62% to R287.34 and Kumba Iron Ore put on 6.71% to end at R292.39.
FirstRand increased 1.93% to R66.48 but Barclays Africa slipped 1.4% to R183.39.
Steinhoff plummeted 15.49% to a low of R2.51 after the group said share transactions by retail tycoon Christo Wiese may have been irregular.
Resilient was up 2.35% to R64.99 at the close. Fortress B gained 3.57% to R16.52 and Nepi Rockcastle 0.8% to R137.50. Resilient released details on Tuesday of an independent review into its finances, saying it had found no evidence of market manipulation or insider trading. Naspers was lifted 1.33% to R3,050. At 5.40pm, the Dow was up 2.14% to 24,492.71 points. In Europe, the DAX 30 had gained 1.08%, the CAC 40 0.77% and the FTSE 100 0.96%.
At the same time, platinum was off 0.46% to $927.01/oz while gold was flat at $1,336.52/oz.
Brent oil was up 3.16% to $70.68 a barrel, with analysts suggesting that escalating tension in the Middle East over Syria and Iran was behind the rising price.
The top 40 Alsi futures index gained 1.17% to 50,520 points. The number of contracts traded was 19,361 from Monday’s 17,533.