Sanlam sizzles as JSE eases a little
SOUTH African stocks ended a seesaw session virtually unchanged on Friday, pulling back from record highs set earlier in the day as investors digested the widely watched US jobs data.
But Sanlam, which posted a 39% jump in annual earnings this week, surged after several brokerages made upbeat comments about its prospects. It climbed 1.8% to R53.19, making it the top gainer on the main stock index.
Overall, investors were largely cautious as they reflected on US jobs data, which reassured them about the health of the world’s biggest economy but reinforced worries that the US would rein in its economic-stimulus programme.
The blue-chip JSE Top 40 index inched down 0.07% to 43 206.26, pulling back from a record high of 43 434.57. The broader All Share index also eased by a similar margin, to 47 786.77, after hitting a record high of 48 002.23.
US equities and other risk assets pared gains as uncertainty over Ukraine tensions outweighed the stronger-than-expected US jobs growth, leading investors to pull money before the weekend.
Stocks on US and world markets, after moving higher earlier in the week on hopes that the Ukraine crisis would reach a diplomatic settlement, pulled back despite the US jobs report for February.
Russian President Vladimir Putin rebuffed a warning from US President Barack Obama over Moscow’s military intervention in Crimea, saying on Friday that Moscow could not ignore calls for help from Russian speakers in Ukraine.
Putin said Moscow and Washington remained far apart, giving investors reason to take money off the table before the weekend.
Equity managers were taking the opportunity to raise some money, said Ken Polcari, director of the New York Stock Exchange floor division of O’Neil Securities in New York.
“It’s Friday, you are going into the weekend, you still have the Ukrainian thing — Putin is not necessarily just bowing here — so you still have that headline risk over the weekend,” he said.
MSCI’s all-country world equity index retreated to trade 0.4% lower after earlier trading just off peaks last seen at the end of 2007.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 turned sharply lower, and was last down 1.26% at 1 327.67.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.15% at 16 446.14. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was down 0.08% at 1 875.50, and the Nasdaq Composite index was down 0.48% at 4 331.20.
Global benchmark Brent was up 76c at $108.86 a barrel.
Spot gold was trading down 1.2% at $1 335.20 by 3.27pm. Palladium was trading down 0.4% on the day at $774.25/oz, having hit a one-year high of $781.50/oz on Thursday. Platinum was on track for its second successive weekly gain, up 2.2%. It was down 0.3% on the day at $1 474.49. —