JSE lower on profit taking

THE JSE ended lower yesterday, after reaching a record high on Monday, with no major external factors driving the market, except for some risk-off profit taking by investors ahead of big international policy announcements today and tomorrow.

Ryan Wibberley, of Investec Asset Management, said yesterday: “We have seen some end-of-month locking-in of profits today after yesterday’s high. I am not surprised that we have come down and there was a fair bit of selling in the banking space today. We had good runs on Friday and Monday, with tremendous gains, so today we saw some selling. The FTSE 100 has been flat most of the day and the US stocks opening not much of a driver. The big drivers of the market remain to play out with the Fed, ECB and BoE announcements on Wednesday and Thursday.”

Markets are awaiting policy announcements from the US Federal Reserve (Fed), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BoE).

At 5pm, the JSE all-share index was down 1.03% to 34,596.90 points, with banks suffering the most with a drop of 2.39%.

Among local big movers, Impala Platinum (IMP) closed R2.66, or 2.01%, lower at R130. Northam Platinum shed 90c, or 3.39%, to R25.66 and Kumba Iron Ore (KIO) lost R22.90, or 4.26%, to R515.10.

In industrials, Richemont (CFR) gave up R1.21, or 2.53%, to R46.59 and AECI (AFE) shed R3.75, or 4.58%, to R78.05.

Among counters reporting results, UK property development company Capital & Counties (CCO) closed unchanged at R27.

Sasfin Holdings (SFN) gained 15c to R28.85. Ferrochrome company Merafe Resources (MRF) closed unchanged at 81c.

SA’s third-largest pharmaceutical company, Cipla Medpro SA (CMP), shed 5c to R8.10. In the construction sector, Aveng (AEG) jumped 4.62% to R36 and PPC (PPC) gained 2.90%, to R25.88.

South African near-dated futures ended lower yesterday, as declining optimism about the coming ECB meeting drove European stocks lower. The near-dated alsi was down 379 points‚ or 1.24%, to 30,259 points. The total number of contracts that exchanged hands was 46,263 from 35,490 on Monday.

Maize prices ended firmer yesterday, tracking grain prices on the Chicago Board of Trade.

The near-dated August white maize contract was up R36.80 to R2,770.80 and the September white maize contract lifted R41.80 to R2,800.80. December white maize rose R47 to R2,865.

The near-dated August yellow maize contract jumped R67 to R2,796 a ton, the September yellow maize contract rose R61 to R2‚811 and the December yellow maize contract gained R51 to R2,838.

The August wheat contract was unchanged at R3,520, with the September wheat contract also unchanged, at R3,563 a ton, while the December wheat contract rose R8 to R3,555 a ton. Staff Writer