JSE slips almost 1% as global trade turns risk-off
Chaos in Hong Kong and disappointment regarding the US-China trade war weighed on the JSE on Monday, with local retailers faring worst.
The local bourse had slipped 1.5% on Friday, when US President Donald Trump disappointed the market by suggesting the US had not agreed to roll back tariffs on China.
Hopes that the world’s two largest economies were closing in on a partial deal had lifted global equities last week.
At 12.23pm the JSE was down 0.99% to 56,057.7 points while the top 40 had fallen 1.05%. General retailers were down 1.83%, food and drug retailers 1.48% and the resources index 1.43%.
Gold was up 0.44% to $1,465.50/oz while platinum had fallen 0.42% to $886.16/oz. Brent crude was 1.5% lower at $61.70 a barrel.
Diversified miner Glencore fell 2.78% to R46.94 and BHP lost 1.89% to R321.37.
Shoprite was down 2.99% to R133.70.
Raubex was up 0.41% to R19.82, having said earlier that headline earnings per share (HEPS) for its six months to end-August rose 64.1% to 58.6c, with the company having received a boost from contract work for independent power producers (IPPs).
Vodacom fell 2.32% to R131.87, having said earlier that HEPS rose 18.9% to 460c and net profit 20.8% to R8.2bn in its six months to end-September. The company declared an interim dividend of 380c, down 3.8% from the year-earlier period, although it also declared a special dividend of 60c per share.
Aspen Pharmacare added 2.37% to R115.88. It said earlier it had agreed to sell its Japanese operations to Sandoz, a division of Novartis, for a total consideration of €400m (R6.58bn).
Source: businesslive.co.za
