JSE slips as oil pushes towards $80 a barrel

The JSE weakened on Tuesday, as interest-rate sensitive stocks came under pressure from a rising oil price, while downbeat local news added to investor woes.

The price of Brent crude reached an intraday high of $79.49 a barrel on Tuesday before paring gains. This followed data showing tight US inventories and Norweigian supply concerns. This weighed on banks and retailers, recently under pressure from a weaker rand, as it increases the prospects of an interest-rate increase.

The all share fell 0.33% to 58,027.1 points and the top 40 dropped 0.38%. General retailers lost 1.76% and banks 1.2%. Resources firmed 0.15%.

The local currency was stable, holding below R13.40 to the dollar shortly before the JSE closed, as global markets continued to brush off continued trade-war concerns.

Local data was downbeat, with the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry business confidence index disappointing, coming in at 93.7 points in June from 94 points the previous month. This has served to reinforce a series of economic releases showing that South African economic growth is not accelerating as quickly as was previously hoped.

Wage negotiations at Eskom, where unions are demanding an 8.5% wage increase, also continued on Tuesday.

Diversified miner Glencore gave up 1.6% to R58.25.

Sasol added 1.03% to R519.65.

Kumba Iron Ore firmed 2.34% to R321.76, while ArcelorMittal jumped 9.3% to R2.35.

Rand hedge Richemont gained 1.13% to R114.72, while Anheuser-Busch InBev gave back 0.71% to R1,385.84.

Mr Price fell 2.55% to R222.19 and Massmart 3.85% to R105.76.

Logistic group Dawn fell 4.76% to 40c, despite earlier saying it expected its headline loss per share for the year to end-March 2018 to fall by between 74% and 78% compared to the prior period.

Shortly after the JSE closed the Dow was up 0.61% to 24,927.71 points, while in Europe, the CAC 40 had gained 0.56% and the DAX 30 0.48%, while the FTSE 100 was flat.

At the same time, platinum had lost 1.06% to $839.54 an ounce and gold 0.27% to $1,254.20. Brent crude was 0.48% higher at $78.54 a barrel.