JSE dips as fears over US-China trade war persist
The JSE joined a trend of lower global markets on Wednesday morning, with investor sentiment hit by a series of comments by US President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
In a speech in New York, Trump hit out at the EU for its tariffs, while also not offering any hope that the US is considering rolling back tariffs on China, following a partial deal reached in October.
Trump, in fact, threatened to “substantially” raise tariffs on China, which, along with ongoing protests in Hong Kong, was giving investors cold feet, said London Capital Group senior market analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya in a note.
At 10.10am the all share was down 0.16% to 56,311.4 points, while the Top 40 fell 0.15%. Platinums had added 2.94% and gold miners 2.75%. Banks gave back 0.86% and industrials 0.32%.
Gold was up 0.23% to $1,459.39/oz and platinum 0.12% to $871.82. Brent crude was 0.53% lower at $61.70 a barrel.
Spar was up 4.6% to R207.11. It earlier raised its dividend 9.7% to 880c a share for the year to end-September. In its Southern Africa operations, liquor sales surged 17.6% in the year to end-September.
Local focus on Wednesday is for retail sales data for September, to be released later in the day.
Source: businesslive.co.za
