JSE to contend with mixed Asian markets on Thursday
The JSE faces mixed Asian markets and sharply lower precious metal prices on Thursday morning, as China’s central bank moved to cut lending rates to offset the effects of the coronavirus outbreak.
China’s cut to the loan prime rate had been expected, and traders had been ignoring the prospect of weak economic data due to the virus, said AxiCorp chief market strategist Stephen Innes in a note.
The policy change fell short, however, and it was now questionable how quickly investors would look through that negativity, Innes said.
In morning trade on Thursday Asian markets were mixed, with the Shanghai Composite up 0.47%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng had fallen 0.81%.
Tencent, which influences the JSE via major shareholder Naspers, had fallen 0.81%.
Gold had slipped 0.16% to $1,608.90/oz while platinum had fallen 0.89% to $994.09. Brent crude had given back 0.37% to $59.14 a barrel.
The rand was 0.57% weaker at R15.05/$.
Locally, Eskom said stage 2 load-shedding will resume on Thursday morning and continue until Saturday.
There is little of note on Thursday’s economic calendar, while in corporate news, Woolworths is expected to give an update for its first-half performance to end-December, having said in a recent trading update that group sales for the period rose 3.8%.
Discovery is also set to release its interim results, having warned recently that its Vitality Life business in the UK had weighed on profit, as it seeks to deal with a low interest rate environment.
Internationally, UK retail sales data for January are due later, and analysts are hoping for a bounce after the Conservative Party electoral victory.
Source: businesslive.co.za
