JSE suffers from commodities’ slip

The JSE lost ground on Tuesday as miners suffered from lower commodity prices, while a stronger rand in late trade further weakened their cause.

Political uncertainty had an effect on the market as Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s adviser, Chris Malikane, published an opinion piece encouraging the nationalisation of miners, banks and insurers.

On Tuesday the Treasury distanced itself from Malikane’s comments, saying: “Minister Malusi Gigaba wishes to place on record that the work of the ministry of finance will continue to be guided by policies of the ANC, as articulated in conference resolutions and in the 2014 election manifesto. The nationalisation of banks is not government policy.”

The all share ended 1.56% lower at 52,672.80 points and the top 40 fell 1.65%. The gold index shed 3.17%, resources 3.12% and platinums 2.19%. Banks lost 2.2%, food and drug retailers 1.33% and industrials 1.22%. Property bucked the trend, gaining 0.46%.

Iron-ore prices fell to five-month lows, which hammered the share prices of producers. Kumba Iron Ore tumbled 8.89% to R170.04 and African Rainbow Minerals 10.70% to R85.

Harmony Gold slumped 7.26% to R34.10 and Northam Platinum lost 2.99% to R54.12.

Standard Bank fell 3.21% to R140.60 and Nedbank 3.45% to R224.56. Insurer MMI lost 1.27% to R22.60. Property group Growthpoint added 1.54% to R25.70 and Capital & Counties added 2.84% to R54.23.

Rand Merchant Bank analyst John Cairns said the rand was doing surprisingly well, even though a mild dollar recovery would pare those gains. The bias on the rand remained positive despite domestic concerns, he said.

At 6.05pm, the rand was at R13.27/$ from Thursday’s R13.31/$. At the same time, the R186 was bid at 8.83% from 8.81% previously.

Futures tracked the weaker local bourse with the near-dated top 40 Alsi futures index down 1.59% at 46,489. The number of contracts traded was 28,769 from Thursday’s 22,675. /With Maarten Mittner and Reitumetse Pitso