JSE’s Tuesday opening follows mixed Asian markets
The JSE is again facing mixed Asian markets on Tuesday with the Shanghai composite in China gaining while markets in Japan were flat and lower in Hong Kong.
The Shanghai composite in China was up 1.01% as many are hoping for stimulus support from authorities after the recent slide in the yuan, new Covid-19 lockdowns in some of China’s industrial hubs and the energy crisis in part because of the historic drought hitting the Chinese economy.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong was down 0.42% amid a fresh wave of Covid-19 infections in the city and lockdowns in mainland China.
Japan’s Nikkei was flat as investors await speeches from several Federal Reserve officials this week.
Tencent, which influences the JSE via Naspers, fell a further 2.07% after the Financial Times reported on Friday the Shenzhen-based internet giant and owner of the popular messaging app WeChat plans to divest about 15% of its $88bn listed equity portfolio.
The JSE held up reasonably well on Monday, outperforming its counterparts in Europe where fears of an energy supply crunch hit sentiment after it was confirmed that the Nord Stream 1 pipeline gas pipeline will remain closed while Russian sanctions are in place. The all share index ended flat at 67,399 points, giving up early gains as a handful of big industrial stocks turned negative towards the close of the session.
Gold was up 0.53% at $1,718.53/oz. Platinum rose 1.02% to $852.80. Brent crude declined 0.20% to 94.97 a barrel.
The dollar dropped 0.36% against the rand, trading at R17.10/$.
All eyes will be on SA’s GDP figures for the second quarter at 11.30am on Tuesday. They will give a breakdown of how the local economy was battered by the fallout of the devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal in April with a contraction of 0.7% expected.
The corporate calendar is bare for Tuesday, but Shoprite will release its results.
Source: businesslive.co.za