JSE gains as markets digest US-China trade war reports

The JSE was higher on Tuesday morning, with financials and banks leading gains while markets assess the latest developments in the US-China trade war. 

Mixed reports regarding the latest news out of the US-China trade talks dampened expectations that the two countries would soon reach a complete trade deal.

Bloomberg reported on Monday that China wanted to hold another round of talks with the US before signing the interim deal proposed during high-level talks last week. According to the report, China also wants the US to remove a tariff hike scheduled for December. 

On Monday, US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said the December tariff hike would be imposed if a trade deal had not been reached. 

“We could already feel that the Chinese were not fully satisfied with their Washington visit, unlike Donald Trump. It now looks like Donald Trump needs a deal more than his Chinese counterparts,” London Capital Group senior market analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya said. 

“This is of course just a game of power. The latest trade metrics in China suggest that the emerging-market giant also has growing interest in strengthening its trade ties with the US,” Ozkardeskaya said. 

Earlier, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.56% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was flat and Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 1.87%. 

At 11.15am, the JSE all share had added 0.51% to 55,502.2 points and the top 40 had risen 0.47%. Financials were up 0.94% and Banks 0.89%. 

EOH was down 0.77% to R12.85. The company said on Tuesday that its loss per share more than doubled from 1,367c to 2,995c in the year to end-July.

Sasol added 1.9% to R279.84 after it said on Tuesday that it had completed its review into cost overruns at its Lake Charles project in the US.

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Source: businesslive.co.za