JSE muted with Bank’s rates call in focus

The JSE was little changed on Monday while global peers were mixed, with local focus on the SA Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting this week.

Governor Lesetja Kganyago is due to announce the latest interest rate decision on Wednesday, with economists expecting it to remain unchanged.

Attention will be on Kganyago’s address for clues on when rate cuts may be implemented.

The Bank has left the repo rate unchanged at 8.25% since May 2023 after a cumulative increase of 475 basis points (bps) since the start of the rate-hiking cycle in November 2021.

“The focus will be on the [Bank’s] MPC decision and guidance, with expectations leaning towards maintaining current rates but with keen interest on future rate cut projections, influenced by changes in Fed expectations and domestic inflation forecasts,” Treasury One currency strategist Andre Cilliers said.

The JSE all share and the top 40 were little changed, with the former at 73,282 points.

SA listed property added 0.78%, precious metals 0.75%, resources 0.37% and industrials 0.21%. Retailers lost 0.77%, financials 0.58%, food producers 0.42%, industrial metals 0.36% and banks 0.21%.

Also this week, global investors will gain further insight into the path of US inflation when the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, for February is released on Friday.

Due to the Easter long weekend, the markets’ reaction will be seen the following week.

At 5.45pm, the Dow Jones industrial average was 0.28% weaker at 39,366 points and the S&P 500 had lost 0.13%.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 was little changed, while France’s CAC 40 gained 0.1% and Germany’s DAX 0.24%.

Shares in junior miner MC Mining fell the most in almost two weeks after the miner accused a consortium of investors, which is pursuing an offmarket buyout offer of the company, of presenting misleading information to shareholders to encourage them to accept an offer that MC Mining’s independent board committee has said significantly undervalues the company. The company’s share price fell 7.04% to R1.85.

The rand kept steady on the day, touching an intraday best at R18.8475 against the dollar. At 5.35pm, it had strengthened 0.34% to R18.922/$ and 0.11% to R20.5002/€, while it was little changed at R23.9159/£. The euro was 0.27% firmer at $1.0834.

Gold gained 0.5% to $2,175.46/oz and platinum 1.7% to $910.08/oz. Brent crude was 1.23% firmer at $86.1 a barrel.