JSE muted as Middle East tension subsides
The JSE was fairly subdued on Thursday morning and still on track for a weekly loss. Global markets recovered as fears related to the tension between the US and Iran eased.
US President Donald Trump’s comments that the US would not retaliate through military action against Iran calmed global markets. The Iranian missile attack on a US military base in Iraq on Wednesday rattled markets, with the price of Brent crude oil reaching more than a seven year high.
“Global markets are green and the US market is back at record highs. The jitters from the last week seem to be behind us now. Helping matters is that the missile strikes from yesterday only did minor damage to the US bases and there was no loss of life, ” fund manager Vestact said in a note.
Earlier, the Shanghai Composite added 0.91%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 1.68% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 2.31%.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 was up 0.41%, France’s CAC 40 0.55% and Germany’s DAX 1.29%.
At 10.50am, the JSE all share and the top 40 were flat with the all share at 57,275 points. Banks added 1.31% and general retailers 2.14%, while gold miners dropped 4.01%.
The SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) is set to release its business confidence index for December later in the day, while Statistics SA will release manufacturing production data for November.
Source: businesslive.co.za
