JSE starts the week lower as Covid-19 worries persist
The JSE was lower on Monday amid mixed global markets as investors waited for more direction regarding Covid-19.
The coronavirus continues to weigh on markets as investors worry about the long-term damage to the global economy. The price of Brent crude fell to its lowest level in almost three weeks during intraday trade, according to data from Infront, as investors fret about the impact of Covid-19 on demand.
While the JSE was lower on the day, it had gained more than 22% over the past 30 days as stimulus measures and hope that the virus will peak soon, aided market sentiment.
“The key determinant to equity performance beyond this period is the trajectory of the Covid-19 virus and how fast economies open up. The faster the global economy restarts, the more gains we are likely to see in risk assets in the short term. However, the midterm outlook continues to be murky as many variables remain unknown,” said FXTM chief market strategist Hussein Sayed.
Earlier, the Shanghai Composite added 0.50% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.21% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 1.15%.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 added 0.31% and Germany’s DAX 0.28% while France’s CAC 40 lost 0.11%.
At 11.31am, the JSE all share was down 0.76% to 48,762.46 points and the top 40 0.73%. Banks dropped 2.56% and financials 1.99%.
Source: businesslive.co.za
