JSE rises in broad-based gains with banks up 3%

The JSE started the week off on a positive note on Monday, with miners, banks and retailers all posting strong gains.

The rand was firmer, pushing through a resistance level of R13.40/$, with a weaker dollar helping to support some commodities and some local miners.

The all share gained 1.58% to 58,219.9 points and the top 40 lifted 1.7%. Banks gained 2.95%, financials 1.84% and food and drug retailers 1.41%.

Gold miners gave up 0.61%.

Asian and European markets were all firmer on the day, with the Dow climbing above its 50-day moving average for the first time in nearly three weeks, reported Dow Jones Newswires.

Global equity markets have pushed higher since Friday, seemingly taking the escalating US-China trade conflict in their stride.

Analysts expect corporate news and economic fundamentals to now return to the spotlight, pending any further threats to world trade.

Global equity markets were flat year-to-date, but corporate earnings had surged, while solid global growth meant earnings expectations remained high, said Old Mutual Multi-Managers strategists Dave Mohr and Izak Odendaal.

This had led to a decrease in forward price-earnings ratios for global stocks, even as the forward price-equity ratios of local companies had increased to well above its long-term average, the analysts said. While at first glance this could suggest the JSE was expensive, local market valuations were converging with global market valuations due to the increasing dominance of globally focused JSE-listed stocks.

Naspers rose 2.08% to R3,510, tracking a rise in Hong Kong-associate Tencent, of which it holds a sizable share. Tencent earlier announced that it would list its music business in the US.

Diversified miner BHP firmed 1.41% to R302.54 and Sasol 2.25% to R514.33.

Rand hedge Richemont gained 0.99% to R113.43 while Anheuser-Busch InBev fell 0.62% to R1,395.70.

FirstRand gained 3.55% to R66.50, Capitec 3.45% to R900 and Standard Bank 3.02% to R197.80.

Vodacom gained 2.68% to R130.50.

Shortly after the JSE closed, the Dow was up 1.06% to 24,715.4 points, while in Europe, the FTSE 100 had risen 1.01%, the CAC 40 0.44% and the DAX 30 0.43%.

At the same time, platinum had gained 0.81% to $851.81 an ounce and gold 0.53% to $1,261.33. Brent crude was 1.39% firmer at $78.17 a barrel.