MARKET WRAP: JSE higher in broad-based gains, with gold miners faring best

The JSE rose on Monday, while global markets remained cautious as US President Donald Trump’s trade crackdown continues to weigh on market sentiment.

The protracted US-China trade war has fuelled concerns of a potential global recession, as the two superpowers have not yet reached a deal.

Asian markets were lower earlier and there was little positive news flow. Most commodity prices pushed higher, however, with gold faring well, amid investor interest in safe-haven assets.

The gold index led gains on the local bourse, climbing 3.62%. The all share added 1.14% to 56,286.3 points and the top 40 1.26%.

Banks rose 1.6%, industrials 1.5%, property 1.44% and platinum miners 1.08%.

Risk aversion increased on Friday after the US announced it would impose a 5% tariff on Mexican imports in a bid to force it to stem illegal migration.

Global equity markets were mixed on Monday. Earlier the Shanghai Composite fell 0.3% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 0.92%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was little changed.

At the close of the JSE, the Dow had gained 0.33% to 24,897.13 points, the FTSE 100 0.27%, France’s CAC 40 0.46% and Germany’s DAX 30 0.38%.

Imperial slumped 5.12% to R57.10, after saying earlier it intends to write down the value of loss-making consumer packaged goods business in SA by up to R1.4bn as part of the group’s portfolio restructuring.

Delta Property gained 2.53% to R2.03; the company earlier reported a decline in distributable earnings for the year to end-February from 97.24c to 73.84c. 

Sirius rose 1.79% to R11.92, after the real-estate company said its total dividend for the year ended March increased by 6.3% to 3.36c.

Taste jumped 22.22% to 11c, despite the troubled group reporting a revenue decrease of 7% to R959.5m for the year ended February.

Tongaat fell another 1.2% to R16.50. The company is still reeling after saying on Friday that it needed to restate its financial statements for the year to March 2018, after identifying “past [accounting] practices, which are of significant concern”.

Naspers gained 2.27% to R3,350, after its Hong Kong-listed subsidiary Tencent earlier gained 2.33%.

Brait climbed 6.99% to R17.90.

Shortly after the JSE closed, the rand had gained 0.81% to R14.4720 to the dollar, 0.49% to R16.2145 to the euro and 0.81% to R18.2815 to the pound. The euro was 0.32% higher at $1.1204.

The benchmark R186 government bond had strengthened, with its yield falling 3.5 basis points to 8.4%. Bond yields move inversely to bond prices.

Gold gained 1.05% to $1,318.87 an ounce and platinum 2.65% to $815.31. Brent crude recovered 0.32% to $61.88 a barrel, after slumping more than 10% last week, its biggest weekly fall since December.