JSE weakens as risk issues creep back into focus

Resurfacing concerns about the US-China trade war put pressure on global stocks on Tuesday morning, with the JSE following suit ahead of risk events later in the day.

Third-quarter GDP numbers and a new national director of public prosecutions all offer the prospect of some market volatility.

Internationally, investors were locking in profit after Monday’s rally, with analysts citing a lack of clear details as to the US-China ceasefire as cause for caution.

After a strong performance on Monday, big diversified miners led the losses on the local bourse. Naspers, which had jumped 4.5% on Monday, extended its gains a little.

At 9.45am the all share was up 0.19% at 51,980.7 points and the top 40 was 0.25% higher. Resources fell 1.14% and banks 0.38% while industrials added 0.25%.

The consensus among economists is that SA exited it technical recession in the third quarter, with Stats SA forecast to report 0.5% growth in the three months to end-September compared to the same period in 2017.

Also on traders’ radars was the oil price, which has jumped on both the US-China trade developments, as well the prospect that oil-cartel Opec will agree to production cuts at a meeting this week.

“The market remains skittish, paring some of its gains on Monday in response to the usual posturing ahead of an Opec meeting, with investors heeding warnings by the organisation’s advisory panel that it will be difficult to achieve a unanimous decision on cuts,” Rand Merchant Bank analyst Nema Ramkhelawan-Bhana said.

Sasol fell 0.26% to R432.85.

Diversified miner BHP gave up 1.97% to R273.01, Glencore 1.83% to R51.90 and Anglo American 1.13% to R288.42.

Rand hedge British American Tobacco lost 1.16%, AB InBev 0.97% to R1,030.43 and Richemont 0.85% to R91.52.

Naspers was up 0.9% to R2,914.53.

Gold was up 0.53% o $1,237.17 an ounce while platinum had lost 0.43% to $803.18. Brent crude was up 0.89% to $62.35 a barrel.

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