JSE drops as trade war optimism grows fainter

The JSE was lower on Wednesday, in line with global markets as investors grow weary following minimal progress in the US-China trade talks.

US  President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to impose higher tariffs on Chinese imports if the two economic superpowers did not reach a deal.

“The drawn-out nature of “phase one” only points to bigger obstacles ahead, if and when trade talks enter phase two,” said FXTM market analyst Han Tan.

“To maintain the current levels of risk appetite in the markets, trade talks must bear fruit soon, or investor focus will shift back to the gloomy economic data, as further evidenced by Japan’s October exports, which saw their sharpest drop in three years,” Tan said.

Earlier, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.78%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has lost 0.75% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 0.62%. 

At 11am, the JSE all share lost 0.57% to 57,045.60 points and the top 40 0.71%. Resources were down 1.15% and banks 0.35%. 

Remgro climbed 5.01% to R193.96. The company’s share price was on track for its best performance in over six years on Wednesday. The investment company said on Tuesday that it planned to distribute its 28% stake in RMB Holdings to shareholders.

Nepi Rockcastle was up 0.61% to R127.70. It said on Wednesday that net operating income increased 19.2% to €300m in the nine months to end-September

PPC added 1.17% to R3.45. The cement maker said on Wednesday that its headline earnings per share fell 71.4% to 6c in the six months to end-September.

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