MARKET WRAP: JSE higher in choppy trade as Trump softens trade stance

The JSE ended a choppy session on Wednesday in positive territory, as diversified miners led the gains on a firmer oil price.

Platinum and gold stocks ended the day higher despite weaker commodity prices, with platinum falling 1.54% to $854.66 an ounce.

Oil prices were higher, despite the oil cartel Opec agreement reached last week to increase production after US officials said all countries should stop Iranian crude imports from November. Brent was 1.05% up at $77.38 a barrel.

Tentative risk-on sentiment supported trade on the JSE toward the close after US President Donald Trump adopted a softer tone towards Chinese tech investments. After earlier threatening to stop all Chinese tech investments in the US, Trump said he would now defer the matter to Congress.

Retailers and banks were lower as the rand weakened against the dollar after some Chinese banks sold off large amounts of dollars to devalue the yuan, further rattling investors. This has seen the yuan weaken to a six-month low. Chinese officials have also intimated they intend to sell off US treasuries, but that was not immediately apparent in trade on Wednesday with the benchmark US 10-year treasury yield falling to 2.8495% from 2.8833%.

The all share closed 0.21% higher at 55,369.30 points and the top 40 gained 0.39%. Resources rose 2.83%, the gold index 0.82%, platinums 0.36% and industrials 0.29%. Food and drug retailers shed 3.44%, banks 2.83%, general retailers 2.32%, financials 2.17% and property 0.41%.

After a subdued start, Naspers ended the day 2.57% higher at R3,177.99.

Steinhoff shed 1.6% to R1.23 after the troubled retail company said it had asked creditors to extend support to two of its struggling entities by another four weeks, beginning June 30.

Shoprite plummeted 5.74% to R211.98 amid reports that retail tycoon Christo Wiese had been a persistent seller of stock in the group over the past few months.

Woolworths lost 3.24% to R53.40.

The rand extended its losses toward the close, trading at R13.7455 to the dollar. The euro was at $1.1593 from $1.65. Government bonds were a little weaker, with the benchmark R186 bid at 8.89% from 8.88%. The German 10-year bund yield was at 0.322% from 0.339%.

The top 40 Alsi futures index gained 0.1% to 49,470 points. The number of contracts traded was 34,112 from Tuesday’s 17,949.