Rand surge hurts bourse

THE JSE pared intraday gains to finish weaker as a stronger rand weighed on rand-hedge stocks, offsetting buying interest in the mining arena, which was spurred by China releasing lower than expected consumer price index numbers, which is likely to increase demand for commodities from the world’s second-largest economy.

At 5pm, the JSE all share index closed down 0.11% at 38,540.81 points and the bluechip top 40 index also ended lower, down 0.16%.

The gold, platinum and resource indices gained 3.67%, 2.48% and 2.03% respectively.

“The JSE all share index gave up early morning gains as the day progressed, led by weaker industrial counters. Richemont and SABMiller shed more than 3% and 2% respectively, weighing on our local bourse as the rand firmed to below the R9/$ mark,” said IG analyst Shaun Murison.

Anglo American (AGL) added 1.96% to R232 and BHP Billiton (BIL) gained 1.84% to R263.60 as metal prices rose. Oil giant Sasol (SOL) was up 1.15% at R390.12. Rand-hedge Richemont (CFR) dropped 3.64% to R67.74, SABMiller (SAB) gave back 2.49% to R459.34 and Bidvest (BVT) gave up 1.86% to R227.80.

Bullion counter Gold Fields (GFI) surged 5.28% to R67.61 and AngloGold Ashanti (ANG) closed 3.64% firmer at R204.92.

Steel producer ArcelorMittal (ACL) slumped 4.29% to R26.80 and Alert Steel (AET) gave back 4.44% to R1.29.

Platinum counter Lonmin (LON) soared 6.36% to R40.15 and Anglo American Platinum (AMS) added 2.03% to R352, while Jubilee (JBL) bucked the trend, giving up 4.46% to R1.07.

Meanwhile, maize futures settled yesterday’s session higher due to the drought in main crop-growing areas causing uncertainty in the market. Higher Chicago Board of Trade numbers also contributed to firmer prices.

“The market closed R20 to R30 firmer, as was expected,” said Thys Grobbelaar of Senwes. “Maize closed higher because the drought situation is pushing prices higher, as traders do not know exactly what the impact on the maize crop will be. The expectation is that the crop will be much smaller than what the Crop Estimates Committee estimated in February.”

The white maize contract for July delivery, the most active contract, added 1.1% to R2,400 a ton, while the yellow variety for same-month delivery gained 1.13% to R2,333.00 a ton.

The white maize September contract lifted 1.29% to R2,435.20 and its yellow counterpart was up 1.38% at R2,362.20. Staff writers