All share down amid rise in rand

The JSE all share closed lower on Thursday, with the rand making a comeback against the dollar, from sixmonth lows, with platinum and property stocks faring worst.

Volumes at the close amounted to R15.4bn, as Naspers and British American Tobacco led the losers among rand hedges, with food and drug retailers benefiting from a rebound in the Woolworths share price.

Resources weakened, with mixed commodity prices failing to provide direction, as copper gained marginally, while zinc and tin trended lower.

European markets were slightly higher with the Dow opening flat after US President Donald Trump unveiled tax reform plans on Wednesday.

Although the plans could boost US GDP growth, market reaction has been muted as most of the good news had already been priced in.

The all share closed 0.40% lower at 54,944.30 points, its first close below 55,000 since the end of July. The bluechip top 40 shed 0.36%.

Platinum lost 1.48%, property 0.84%, resources 0.75%, and financials 0.46%. Food and drug retailers added 0.76% and general retailers, 0.30%.

BHP lost 1.51%, to R236.53 and Anglo American, 0.73% at R236.43.

British American Tobacco lost 1.06%, to R842.99 and Naspers 0.37%, to R2,865.

Capitec came under pressure for a third consecutive day. It closed 2.2% lower at R857.50.

Woolworths was up 1.11%, to R59.86.

The rand recovered from an intraday worst level of R13.7121 to the dollar, to trade at R13.5345 soon after the JSE’s close, on renewed mixed signals from US Federal Reserve officials on future interest rate hikes, following chairwoman Janet Yellen’s hawkish tone earlier in the week.

Local bonds were stable on higher US bond yields with the R186 bid at 8.62%, from 8.63%. The US 10-year bond was at 2.3293%, from 2.3105%.

The top-40 Alsi futures index lost 0.42% at 49,580 points. The number of contracts traded was 19,477, from Wednesday’s 21,758.