JSE remains flat as market considers Chinese stimulus plans

The JSE began the new week with a subdued start on Monday morning, with sentiment fragile as investors considered both new Chinese stimulus and gloomy data out of Asia.

China has moved to reduce how much cash banks must hold in reserve, releasing liquidity to boost an economy that has been hit by the China-US trade conflict. Chinese exports to the US unexpectedly fell in August, while markets are also considering a worse than expected second-quarter performance by the Japanese economy.

At 10.15am the JSE was flat at 55,605.2 points while the top 40 was unchanged. Gold miners fell 1.94% and platinums 0.9%. Financials added 0.68%.

Gold was flat at $1,506.65/oz while platinum had lost 0.31% to $946.3. Brent crude was up 0.29% at $61.84 a barrel.

Sasol added 2.47% to R266.96, recovering a little from Friday’s 4.05% slump, when it announced a second delay of its financial results. The chemicals giant said it had expanded a probe into delays at its Lake Charles project in the US.

Rand hedge AB InBev was up 1.83% to R539.10.

Old Mutual rose 1.63% to R18.66. Earlier, axed CEO Peter Moyo returned to work after he won another victory in the high court on Friday. Old Mutual said, however, that it was confident another court would come to a different conclusion.

Intu Properties jumped 16.41% to R7.45, amid reports that private-equity group Orion Capital Managers was considering a buyout.

Naspers fell 1.03% to R3,528.44.

AVI added 2.04% to R86.20. It said earlier that headline earnings per share fell 4.9% to 516.6c for the year to end-June, while operating profit declined 3% on a like-for-like basis. The company said it continued to feel pressure from a constrained trading environment, but was hoping for profit growth across much of its operations in its 2020 year.

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