Gold miners lead gains as JSE firms

The JSE firmed for a second day on Tuesday with gold miners leading gains, while global markets were mixed as investors worry about the rapid rise in Covid-19 cases.

A surge in cases in the US has escalated concern about some states halting reopening, further delaying economic recovery in the world’s largest economy.

More than 11.8-million cases have been confirmed globally, with nearly 6.8-million of those recovered, and more than 540,000 dead, as more countries resume economic activity.

“With reopening comes risk as many states in the US are now seeing. Second-wave anxiety is putting a downer on the economic enthusiasm that accompanied the lifting of restrictions around the world and it has left investors in two minds about the great stock market recovery,” said Oanda senior market analyst Craig Erlam.

The JSE all share gained 0.72% to 55,243.80 points and the top 40 0.83%. Gold miners rose 4.60% and the platinum mining index 2.93%, while banks fell 1.04%. The all share is down 3.2% so far this year.

At 5.42pm, the rand had weakened 0.72% to R17.0920/$, 0.62% to R19.3021/€ and 1.44% to R21.4936/£. The euro had weakened 0.12% to $1.1294.

“Global sentiment remains fragile and highly sensitive to coronavirusrelated developments and this continues to be reflected in the rand, which is used by most as a proxy for emergingmarket risk,” said FXTM senior research analyst Lukman Otunuga.

“Expect the rand to weaken over the next few days if global growth concerns and rising coronavirus cases overshadow the string of positive economic fundamentals from major economies. Domestically, the local currency continues to battle with soft data and a gloomy growth outlook.”

The yield on the R2030 government bond was flat at 9.69%. Bond yields move inversely to prices.

Shortly after the JSE closed, the Dow was down 0.73% to 26,095.90 points. In Europe, the FTSE 100 lost 1.46%, France’s CAC 40 0.78% and Germany’s DAX 0.92%.

Earlier, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.37%, while the Hong Kong Hang Seng was down 1.38% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 0.44%.

Gold was up 0.57% to $1,794.41/oz and platinum 2.68% to $838.90. Brent crude added 0.44% to $43.26 a barrel.