Platinums, banks weigh on market

The JSE all share dipped on Friday as platinum and banking shares weighed on the market, while retailers and gold shares performed best on the day.

Platinum investors were spooked by Impala Platinum’s annual results, released earlier in the week, as production came in below targets.

A lower platinum price added to the misery, with the spot price down 1.93%, to $965.99/oz soon after the JSE’s close. The platinum index lost more than 9% over the week.

Implats declined 6.98% on the day, to R34.23. Anglo American Platinum and Northam were also down.

Bank shares were lower in risk-off trade ahead of this week’s interest rate decision by the Reserve Bank, which may deliver a rate cut.

Financials were pulled down by insurers Sanlam and MMI Holdings, while Discovery is set to release annual results on Monday.

Among retailers, Woolworths gained as it recovered from what has proved to be a challenging period; the share price has lost 15.85% in 2017. Steinhoff and Shoprite fell on the day.

Naspers was unable to hold above R3,000 a share, but was still up 2.1% for the week.

The all share closed 0.37% lower at 55,645.20 points and the top 40 was down 0.49%. The platinum index shed 2.78%, banks 1.46%, financials 0.54%, resources 0.39% and industrials 0.33%. The gold index rose 0.79%, general retailers 0.78%, property 0.41% and food and drug retailers 0.33%.

The all share ended the week down 0.14%, its third consecutive week of losses; it is, however, still up 9.85% for the year.

British American Tobacco added 2.35%, to R849, while FirstRand dropped 2.15%, to R52.88.

Soon after the JSE’s close, the rand was at R13.1601/$, from R13.1166/$. The dollar weakened against the euro, and the pound was sharply firmer.

Bond yields were steady, with the R186 last bid at 8.4%, from 8.41%.

The top 40 Alsi futures index lost 0.11%, to 49,399 points. The number of contracts traded doubled to 47,192, from Thursday’s 23‚705.