JSE falls, following Europe, as investors digest the US-China trade news

The JSE was lower on Monday morning, in line with European markets as investors ponder the latest developments in the US-China trade war. 

The US and China agreed on a partial deal on Friday as the two economic superpowers held high-level talks in Washington last week. The US agreed to suspend a tariff increase on $250bn worth of Chinese imports while the latter said it would purchase more US agricultural products.  

“Given how fast the wind can change direction, investors will likely prevent from crying victory too soon. Chinese news, for example, didn’t refer to the outcome of last week’s negotiations as a ‘deal’, to avoid fuelling expectations too fast, too soon,” said London Capital Group senior market analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya

Earlier, the Shanghai Composite added 1.15%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 0.81% while Japan’s Nikkei 225 was closed for a public holiday.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 was down 0.4%, France’s CAC 40 0.73% and Germany’s DAX 30 0.58%. 

At 10.55am, the JSE all share lost 0.29% to 55,374.7 points and the top 40 0.28%. Resources were down 1.05% and gold miners were up 0.78%. 

Adapt IT was up 0.23% to R4.41. The company said on Monday that its headline earnings per share decreased by 8% to 57.27c in the year to end-June. 

Long4Life added 2.25% to R4.09. The company said on Monday that its trading profit increased 13% to R201m in the six months to end-August.

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