JSE halts its three-week losing run
Siyabonga Ngwenya mines coal from a crack under the cliff face of a former commercial mine near Wesselton, outside Ermelo in Mpumalanga. His parents are dead, so Ngwenya, 22, lives with his grandmother and mines coal to provide an income for the household. His only source of light is a candle and he cannot afford any protective gear ýSee Page 3 THE JSE halted a three-week losing run as some resource and financial shares rebounded from recent lows. The rand put up a strong fight, boosted in part by the Reserve Bank decision to raise interest rates.
After a wobbly start to the week, which was linked to the terrorist attacks in France, investors took in their stride the incidents in Paris that left 129 people dead and scores more injured.
The All Share index settled the week 2% higher at 52 240.58 points, but remains 3% lower this month after a hefty 7.4% gain in October.
Featuring prominently on the winners’ board were gold miners, notably Gold Fields after its well-received quarterly results. Financial shares displayed a strong performance, led by Investec and Discovery Holdings.
The financial and industrial sectors continue to dominate the domestic market, which has had a rocky ride this year.
Commodity markets struggled to make headway, with copper slipping to a six-and-a-half-year low amid oversupply and weak demand concerns.
Unlike in the past few months, global markets were relatively resilient to this week’s release of the US Federal Reserve minutes, which BRACE YOURSELF: Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago reiterated that rates were likely to rise next month for the first time since 2006.
Stock markets rallied and the dollar retreated, suggesting investors may have priced in the outcome. The rand regained more than 50c to the dollar to push below the R14/$ mark for the first time in four weeks.
The relief rally in the rand was also motivated by the Reserve Bank’s decision to lift rates by 25 basis points.
Rand Merchant Bank analyst John Cairns said he expected one more rate hike, possibly in January and subject to the rand’s behaviour if the Fed does indeed pull the trigger on rates in December.
The data set that may determine the short-term trend for the rand and the broader market is the release of South Africa’s GDP on Tuesday.
See Page 4