JSE opens lower as US homes in on Huawei

The JSE opened lower on Monday morning following the Asian markets after the US intensified its crackdown on Chinese telecom giant Huawei. 

Just days after US president Donald Trump signed an executive order to blacklist Huawei from the US market, Google suspended business with the telecoms company, further escalating tension between the US and China. Google suspended all business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical services excluding products available via open-source licensing, Reuters reported. 

Earlier, the Shanghai composite was down 0.41% and the Hong Kong Hang Seng 0.62%. The Japanese Nikkei was up 0.89%. The FTSE 100 was flat%, CAC 40 down 0.2%  and DAX 30 0.12%.

At 10.01am the all share dropped 0.44% to 55,934 points with industrials down 1%  and general retailers 0.32% off. Gold mining was up 1.1%. The top 40 fell 0.55%. 

Pioneer Foods slumped 8.66% to R75.87. On Monday, the company reported that its adjusted headline earnings fell 15% for the six months ended March. 

Barloworld was up 2.08% to R129.07. The industrial brand reported that its headline earnings per share increased 14.1% for the six months ended March. 

Naspers was down 2.81% to R3,225.85 after its Hong Kong-listed investment, Tencent, earlier fell 3.82%. 

Anglo American Platinum dropped 0.41% to R701.93 after it laid off about half of the underground workforce at its Mototolo mine following an unprotected strike over changes to conditions of service.

Gold was flat at $1276.1/oz and platinum rose 0.48% to $823.66. Brent crude climbed 1.21% to $72.96 a barrel due to supply concerns as tension between the US and Iran regarding the middle-eastern country’s nuclear programme intensifies. 

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