JSE faces muted Asian markets on Wednesday

The JSE faces mostly subdued Asian markets on Wednesday morning, with US markets snapping a five-session losing streak overnight, led by tech stocks.

Tech stocks have been heavily sold off so far in September, while the fear of rising Covid-19 numbers in Europe, US political uncertainty and trade war concerns have weighed on sentiment so far this week.

In all likelihood, after a multi-day losing streak, some investors are eager to click the buy button again, Oanda analyst Jeffrey Halley said in a note.

Calls from US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell for more stimulus this week and an improvement in a gauge of US manufacturing activity for September may have boosted sentiment slightly, said Halley.

In morning trade, the Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng were both little changed, while Japan’s Nikkei was down 0.41% — returning after two days of public holidays in that country.

Tencent, which influences the JSE via Naspers, was up 0.29%.

Gold was down 0.58% to $1,888.56/oz while platinum was flat at $865.33. Brent crude was 0.72% lower at $42.46 a barrel.

The rand was 0.29% weaker at R16.83/$.

Locally, trade may be subdued by the Heritage Day public holiday on Thursday.

Grand Parade Investments is expected to report it swung into a headline loss in the year to end-June later. The group’s gaming businesses, SunWest and Sun Slots, were closed from the end of March until the end of June.

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Source: businesslive.co.za