JSE begins November on a positive note as Naspers continues to push it higher

The JSE started November on a positive note on Thursday, largely due to a strong showing by market heavyweight Naspers, which has rebounded from recent weakness.

A decision by global index firm MSCI not to penalise Naspers’s weighting due to its share structure has helped lift the stock, which gained 9.4% on Wednesday. Richemont also benefited, jumping 4.42% during the session.

Global stocks in general were finding support, however, with tech stocks in particular cheering better-than-expected third-quarter results from Facebook this week.

On Thursday, global markets pushed higher, with focus now on a key US jobs report on Friday, as well as a Bank of England (BoE) interest rate decision later on Thursday.

The Absa purchasing managers index (PMI) for October is due at 11am, with analysts expecting a slight rise from September’s 44.5 points from 43.2 points.

At 9.30am the all share was up 0.57% to 52,685.7 points and the top 40 had added 0.76%. Industrials gained 1.23%, while gold miners lost 2.95%.

ArcelorMittal SA was flat at R3.81. The company reported earlier that the total amount of steel it sold during the September quarter rose by 3.5% to 1.1-million tons in the previous comparative period.

Rand hedge Anheuser-Busch InBev was up 0.4% to R1,106 while Richemont was off 0.24% to R107.68.

Sibanye-Stillwater slumped 10.45% to R9.17.

MTN slipped 1.64% to R84.10.

Naspers was up 4.14% to R2,700.06.

At the same time in Europe, the DAX 30 was up 1.42%.

Gold had risen 0.79% to $848.79/oz and platinum 1.24% to $848.79/oz.

Brent crude had risen 0.21% to $74.76 a barrel.

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Source: businesslive.co.za