JSE closes weaker as market eyes key events

THE JSE closed slightly weaker in subdued trade yesterday as the market failed to find direction ahead of a number of important risk events later in the week.

These include meetings of the US Federal Reserve‚ the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Japan, which will affect markets globally.

The Fed is expected to hike interest rates by 25 basis points tomorrow.

The market is keeping an eye on the summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore‚ which is also likely to affect financial markets.

Higher-yielding currencies like the rand‚ peso and ruble were strongly reliant on investor appetite taking on risk‚ FXTM analyst Jameel Ahmad said.

It would be expected that currencies like the rand would follow the lead from global stock markets‚ if they do rally on indications of a positive summit‚ he said.

Data was light‚ but weaker-than-expected manufacturing numbers for the UK earlier put the pound under pressure.

The JSE all-share closed 0.13% lower at 58 146.1 points and the Top 40 lost 0.09%.

The platinum index lost 0.92%‚ banks 0.76%‚ property 0.66%‚ financials 0.56% and food and drug retailers 0.5%. Resources added 0.36% and general retailers 0.32%.

Anheuser-Busch InBev rose 2.73% to R1 270.85.

Alexander Forbes dropped 5.76% to R5.73 after annual results failed to impress the market with headline earnings per share dropping 16.8%. Capitec lost 2.05% to R865.95. South African bonds were under pressure with the benchmark R186 yield hitting 9%. It was at 8.99%, from 8.95%, at the JSE’s close.

Foreigners were net sellers of domestic bonds last week‚ shedding R15.8-billion in debt‚ according to the JSE’s weekly data.

The benchmark US 10-year was largely unchanged at 2.9566% while the German 10-year bund yield jumped to 0.4889% from 0.4464%.