JSE falls as worry about tariffs hits global equities

The JSE ended Monday lower, in line with most major equity markets, as trade-war concerns once again prompted investors to sell risk assets.

A weaker rand gave the local bourse much of its direction, with some miners also lower, amid a slew of local corporate earnings reports.

The all share fell 0.76% to 56,556.8 points and the top 40 dropped 0.83%. Industrials lost 1.29%, banks 1.04% and food and drug retailers 0.85%.

Global market focus remained on issues of a trade war. The failure at the weekend of Group of 20 (G-20) finance officials to make progress in addressing trade concerns weighed on the market, with hints that the White House could push ahead with even more tariffs on Chinese goods.

US President Donald Trump’s comments on social media about Iran — in which he warned that country against aggression towards the US — also weighed on sentiment, said FXTM head of currency strategy Jameel Ahmad.

Domestically, annual results from power utility Eskom’s were also in the spotlight, with the embattled state-owned enterprise reporting a net loss of R2.3bn due to rising finance costs.

Rand hedge Richemont was 1.14% lower at R117.48, while Anheuser-Busch InBev firmed 0.79% to R1,422.45.

Anglo American Platinum firmed 1.15% to R360, after earlier announcing an interim dividend of R3.74 per share for the six months to end-June, its first interim payment since 2011.

Harmony Gold rose 2.65% to R21.66, after earlier saying it had achieved production of 1.228-million ounces of gold for its financial year to end-June, higher than its earlier guidance of 1.18-million ounces.

Kumba Iron Ore firmed 1.05% to R290.56, ahead of the release of its results for the six months to end-June on Tuesday. The company said in June it expected headline earnings per share to fall by at least 20% for the period, due to a stronger rand and falling iron ore prices.

ArcelorMittal gained 11.84% to R3.40, extending gains made since Thursday when it said it had returned to profitability in the six months to end-June.

Naspers gave back 1.68% to R3,390.61, tracking losses in Hong Kong-listed Tencent, of which it owns 31.2%.

Shortly after the JSE closed the Dow was 0.16% lower at 25,015.39 points, while in Europe the CAC 40 was down 0.53%, the FTSE 100 0.25% and the DAX 30 0.16%.

At the same time, gold was 0.56% lower at $1,224.70 an ounce and platinum 0.28% at $828.11. Brent crude was 0.71% higher at $73.48 a barrel.