Industrials, banks lift JSE
THE JSE pushed to a record high yesterday, buoyed by a strong performance among banking, financial and industrial counters.
At 5pm, the all share index was up 0.99% to 44,453.88 points with the top 40 index adding 0.97%. Both the banking and industrial indices closed at new highs, rising 1.36% and 1.07%, respectively. Financials gained 1.07%.
“We had a bit of a lower start as market participants tried to fathom the direction the JSE would take coming back from yesterday’s (Tuesday’s) public holiday,” Newstrading portfolio manager Devin Shutte said.
“But buyers soon came back into the market, with strong demand for industrial and banking counters, which saw us reach some new highs,” he said.
Among local banking counters, Standard Bank, FirstRand and RMB Holdings rallied to their highest level since listing, with industrial group Steinhoff also closing at a record level.
Gold shares closed flat (-0.01) despite a firmer bullion price. By 5.08pm, spot gold was up 0.85% to $1,334,59/oz.
RMB wrote in a research note that the US had six more days to come up with a budget or face a government shutdown. By 5.28pm local time, the Dow Jones industrial average had inched up 0.22%.
In local results news, microlender Capitec (CPI) reported a 20% rise in headline earnings per share to 844c for the six months ended August.
The unsecured lending giant also increased its interim dividend by 20% to 203c, but the stock closed down 0.80% to R201.27 as traders said the share had run well in the past few weeks.
Among other shares ArcelorMittal SA (ACL) lost 2.28% to R35.20, while Sibanye (SGL) jumped 5.68% to R13.03
Standard Bank (SBK) added 1.04% to R121.30, FirstRand (FSR) lifted 1.76% to R34.70 and RMB Holdings (RMH) gained 1.82% to R47.60.
Shoprite (SHP) led gains among retail stocks, rising 3.18% to R173.09 with Steinhoff (SHF) climbing 0.99% to R34.81.
In the telecoms space, MTN Group (MTN) gained 2.79% to R198.48, Vodacom (VOD) closed 2.73% higher at R126.67, and Telkom (TKG) added 2.54% to R23.80.
Property counters saw Redefine (RDF) add 3.13% to R10.20 and Intu Properties (ITU) lift 2.36% to R51.54.
AECI (AFE) was up 3.75% to R123.80, and Altron (ATN) finished 3.70% higher at R23.85.
Futures ended firmer yesterday, tracking the JSE.