JSE pushes higher as Naspers bounces back

The JSE started the week on a positive note, supported to some degree by the rand as well as a recovery by some shares that were sold off heavily in recent sessions.

Big diversified miners found favour despite the firmer rand, with global focus dominated by US-China trade talks this week, as well as unfolding events in Turkey.

Reports on Friday that negotiators from the US and China were mapping out talks with the aim of resolving the trade dispute by November, had provided support to equities, somewhat overshadowing events in Turkey, reported Dow Jones Newswires.

The all share firmed 0.88% to 57,145.6 points and the top 40 rose 0.99%. Industrials gained 1.22%, platinums 1.2% and banks 1.07%. Gold miners lost 2.01%.

Naspers rose 2.14% to R3,248, tracking gains in associate Tencent, which had come under sustained pressure after announcing disappointing second-quarter earnings last week.

Tiger Brands gained 1.82% to R280 having fallen almost 20% last week when it said its headline earnings per share (HEPS) could fall by as much as 37% in the year to end-September.

Diversified miner Anglo American gained 1.55% to R291.95, BHP 0.84% to R307.05 and Glencore 0.38% to R57.37.

Sasol gave up 1.04% to R523, after saying earlier that HEPS dropped 22% to R27.44 in the year to end-June.

AngloGold Ashanti fell 1.9% to R105.65. The group said on Monday it had had a strong first half, raising production from retained operations 4% year on year.

Shoprite added 0.49% to R211.80, ahead of its results on Tuesday. It said in July that group turnover was expected to increase 3.6% for the year to end-June.

Property group Rebosis plummeted 6.78% to R7.15, after earlier saying that its interim ordinary B-share dividend growth was set to drop by between 20% and 25%.

Resilient gave up 0.36% to R57.69.

Shortly after the JSE closed the Dow was flat at 25,669.32 points, while in Europe, the FTSE 100 had gained 0.61%, the CAC 40 0.86% and the DAX 30 1.15%.

At the same time, platinum had firmed 0.5% to $791.60 an ounce and gold 0.11% to $1,185.87. Brent crude was 0.82% higher at $72.34 a barrel.