JSE likely to be subdued on Tuesday by weaker Tencent and looming risks
The JSE could be under pressure on Tuesday morning, amid lower commodity prices and a slide by Chinese media giant Tencent.
Tencent, which was down 1.7% in Hong Kong, has been under pressure recently, though no single reason is evident. The company, best known for its WeChat app, influences the JSE via Naspers.
Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday morning, with investors digesting comments from US President Donald Trump that a formalisation of a partial US-China trade deal was “ahead of schedule”.
US markets were lifted overnight by positive US corporate earnings reports, though Alphabet — the parent company of Google — was under pressure after missing earnings expectations.
Focus on Tuesday is on Brexit, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson attempting to get parliamentary backing for a general election on December 12. The EU has granted an extension of the Brexit deadline until January.
Locally, a government paper on the future of Eskom is expected later, though domestic focus remains squarely on the medium-term budget policy statement on Wednesday.
Markets are ignoring local developments for now, and are waiting for the US Federal Reserve policy statement on Wednesday, said Peregrine Treasury Solutions corporate treasury manager Bianca Botes in a note.
At 6.20am the Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng were both down 0.4$, while Japan’s Nikkei had added 0.3%.
Diversified miner BHP was up 1.2% on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
Gold was flat at $1,492.06/oz, while platinum had slipped 0.41% to $914.15. Brent crude was 0.26% lower at $61.42 a barrel.
The rand was steady at R14.57/$.
The corporate calendar is light, but Aspen Pharmacare’s share price should react to its restated results to end-June, with the company suffering a R719m impairment after the recall of a drug in Australia.
Source: businesslive.co.za
