JSE slips amid trade-war uncertainty

The JSE was lower on Tuesday morning tracking some global markets as there seems to be no end in sight in the US-China trade war.

On Monday, the Chinese government lodged a case against the US at the World Trade Organisation over the latest tariff on Chinese imports, which came into effect on Sunday. According to news reports, the US and China have yet to agree on a date to resume talks. 

“Investors are now worried that China could get cold feet under the heavy pressure that US President Donald Trump puts on the country relentlessly, ” senior market analyst at London Capital Group Ipek Ozkardeskaya said. 

“So, the global trade disruptions will likely remain the main course on September’s menu. So far, Chinese negotiators have been accommodating to prevent the tension from going off the roof,” Ozkardeskaya said. 

Earlier, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.21% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.35% and Japan’s Nikkei was flat. In Europe, the FTSE 100 was unchanged while France’s CAC 40 was down 0.47% and Germany’s DAX 30 0.5%. 

At 10.10am, the JSE all share was down 0.47% to 54,528.40 points and the top 40 had lost 0.51%. Resources were 0.94% down and industrials 0.41%. 

Fortress B-shares dropped 1.66% to R10.65 after the property company said on Tuesday that its B-shareholders received a dividend of 1.55c, a 13.4% decrease in the six months to-end June.

Aspen jumped 7.6% to R82.67. The company said on Tuesday that its headline earnings per share were expected to decrease between 17% and 13% between 1,224.0c to 1,283.0c in the year to end-June. 

Cashbuild was down 2.13% to R230. On Tuesday, the company declared a dividend of 420c in the 53 weeks to end-June from  346c in the same period in 2018. 

Statistics SA is expected to release GDP growth for the second quarter on Tuesday morning. The consensus is an expansion 2.5% among economists polled by Bloomberg. 

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