Diversified miners up on oil price
The JSE was flat on Friday but ended the week down 0.54%, despite a rally by the rand after dovish commentary from US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.
The JSE was flat on Friday but ended the week down 0.54%, despite a rally by the rand after dovish commentary from US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.
Losses by Naspers offset gains by diversified miners, with the latter benefiting from a higher oil price.
The rand had its best week against the dollar in three, having gained 1.26% by the JSE’s close, as emergingmarket currencies were buoyed by expectations of a drop in US interest rates. This has helped entrench market expectations that the Reserve Bank will cut rates this week, which should support local banks and retailers.
Markets are pricing in a 17.5% chance of the Fed cutting interest rates by 50 basis points (bps) at its July 31 meeting, and an 82.5% chance of a 25bps cut.
The market may increasingly price in a 50bps cut, and all that stands in the way of this is US economic data between now and the Fed meeting, said Vanguard Markets managing partner Stephen Innes.
Naspers lost 1.68% on Friday and 2.19% for the week, tracking losses in Hong Kong-listed subsidiary Tencent.
Tech stocks were under pressure amid a stand-off between Japan and South Korea, with the former restricting some key technology components to the latter amid a spat over compensation for World War 2 victims.
The all share closed flat on Friday at 57,277.3 points while the top 40 was also little changed. Gold miners fell 1.02% and industrials 0.37%. The resources index added 0.55%.
Gold was up 0.43% to $1,409.53/oz and platinum 0.5% to $828.34. Brent crude was 0.13% higher at $66.78 a barrel as a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico led producers to cut output.
The Dow was up 0.52% at 27,232 points; in Europe, the FTSE 100 was flat, the CAC 40 had added 0.24%, while the DAX 30 was down 0.11%.
Diversified miner Glencore gained 1.25% to R46.95.
Pan African Resources jumped 8.24% to R1.97. It said earlier that gold production increased 54.1% in the year to end-June.
Woolworths gained 0.28% to R53.10 following Thursday’s 7.86% surge, which came after a trading update in which the retailer said group sales in the year to end-June rose 5.9% thanks to its SA food business.
Rebosis slumped 10.53% to 68c. It said earlier that it had entered into seven separate sales agreements to dispose of its 49.35% stake in New Frontier properties. It believes this holding is one of the reasons for the company’s declining share price.
Steinhoff International jumped 13.39% to R1.44. It said losses dropped to €571m in the six months to endMarch, from €609m a year before.