Miners and property push up JSE

Miners and property shares led the JSE firmer on Wednesday, while global markets were mixed as investors weighed positive European corporate earnings against concerns over rising Covid-19 infections in Asia.

Global stocks have been under pressure this week with investors worried the jump in Covid-19 cases in countries such as India and Canada could stall economic recovery.

“Fears over the impact that rising Covid-19 cases could have on the global economic recovery hit risk appetite hard on Tuesday. Travel restrictions will likely act as a brake on the recovery. The market’s performance on Tuesday served as a stark reminder that we still can’t draw a line under Covid-19 risk,” said Oanda market analyst Sophie Griffiths.

On Wednesday, “risk appetite was attempting to rebound as corporate earnings optimism overrides Covid-19 concerns”, she said.

The JSE all share gained 0.46% to 67,145 points and the top 40 was also up 0.46%. Precious metals rose 3.18%, listed property 1.23% and resources 0.97%. Banks lost 0.6%, industrial miners 0.43% and financials 0.42%.

Impala Platinum led the gains in the precious metals sector, rising the most in seven weeks, up 5.01% to R294.08. Northam added 3.56% to R275.98, DRDGold 3.4% to R15.51, Gold Fields 3.27% to R145.08, Sibanye-Stillwater 2.94% to R71.67, Anglo American Platinum 2.87% to R2,088.34 and Harmony Gold 2.41% to R67.60.

Local inflation accelerated in March on an annual basis, but stayed well below the midpoint of the Reserve Bank’s 3%-6% target band, leaving more scope for policymakers to keep rates lower for longer to shore up SA’s pandemic-hit economy.

Consumer inflation rose to 3.2% in March, up from 2.9% the previous month, according to Stats SA on Wednesday. This is marginally below the 3.3% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 15 analysts.

At 6.15pm, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.64% to 34,067 points. In Europe, the FTSE 100 in London gained 0.52%, France’s CAC 40 added 0.74% and Germany’s DAX 30 advanced 0.53%.

At the same time, the rand had strengthened 0.26% to R14.2504/$, 0.27% to R17.1382/€ and 0.2% to R19.8529/£. The euro was little changed at $1.2036.

Gold gained 0.89% to $1,794.24/oz and platinum 2.4%, to $1,216.78/oz.

Brent crude lost 0.62% to $65.89 a barrel. tsobol@businesslive.co.za