MARKET WRAP: JSE enjoys third session of broad-based gains, as banks jump

The JSE began the week on a positive note on Monday, gaining more than 1% for the third consecutive session, as global stocks, in general, continued to be in favour.

Banks and Naspers were boosted the most by ongoing positive sentiment towards risk assets, although some miners were also higher despite a firmer rand.

The current risk-on climate was a result of upbeat US jobs numbers on Friday, which exceeded analyst expectations in terms of both employment and wage growth.

“What an incredible run the US jobs market has had since the crash of 2009. US workers like to consume, so this is great news for everybody,” said Vestact analysts.

Local corporate announcements prompted a mixed reaction from investors on the day, while major global and domestic economic data releases attracted little interest. Tuesday marks the week’s major local release, that of GDP for the first quarter. Statistics SA’s data will also give further evidence on the health of the mining, manufacturing and agricultural sectors in the early part of the year.

A strong performance by Naspers provided a fillip to the local bourse, with it now having gained 8% in the past two trading days, tracking gains in Hong Kong-listed Tencent.

The all share rose 1.03% to 57,780.90 points and the top 40 1.04%. Banks gained 2.66% and food and drug retailers 1.82%. Gold miners fell 0.76%.

Anheuser-Busch InBev lifted 2.76% to R1,214.06 while British American Tobacco fell 1.38% to R637.08.

Richemont gained 0.51% to R116.85, after earlier announcing the acquisition of second-hand luxury watch trading site watchfinder.co.uk, as well as the disposal of French leather goods company Lancel.

Stadio rocketed 17.86% to R4.62, after saying earlier its student enrolment had more than doubled over the past six months.

Novus slipped 2.56% to R3.80, after earlier reporting its CEO Keith Vroon had resigned.

Sirius Real Estate fell 0.96% to R11.29 despite earlier upping its total dividend for the year to end-March 8.2%.

Naspers gained 2.18% to R3,268.75.

At 5.40pm the Dow was up 0.71% to 24,810.91 points, while in Europe, the DAX 30 had gained 0.43%, the FTSE 100 0.38% and the CAC 40 0.21%.

At the same time, gold was flat at $1,293.59 while platinum had fallen 0.18% to $901.81. Brent crude was 1.23% lower at $75.63.

The top 40 Alsi futures index gained 1.3% to 51,750 points. The number of contracts traded was 29,197 from Fridays 23,674.