MARKET WRAP: JSE led slightly lower by Naspers

The JSE slipped on Monday, despite gains by banks and financial stocks, with miners leading the losses.

The Dow closed 1% higher on Friday due to a strong performance from banks, as corporate earnings season in the US kicked off. Company results in that country are expected to be the dominant issue in the markets this week, with trade expected to be subdued a little by the forthcoming public holidays.

Global sentiment was somewhat positive on Monday, boosted by upbeat Chinese trade data, and reports that the US and China are closing in on a trade deal.

The all share fell 0.27% to 58,249.3 points and the top 40 lost 0.35%. Banks gained 1.62% and financials 0.91%. Gold miners lost 1.21% and industrials 0.68%.

Shortly after the JSE closed the Dow was down 0.3% at 26,331.14 points, while in Europe, the FTSE 100 had lost 0.13%. The CAC 40 and DAX 30 were flat.

At the same time, platinum had fallen 1.07% to $881.71/oz and gold 0.25% to $1,287.32. Brent crude was down 0.45% at $71.18 a barrel.

The rand was 0.43% weaker at R14.0229/$.

The major local and international data releases take place on Wednesday, with domestic retail sales numbers for February due, along with consumer inflation for March. China will release first-quarter GDP figures.

Sasol dropped 0.71% to R463.30.

Rand hedge British American Tobacco gained 2.02% to R574.62 and AB InBev 0.88% to R1,250.87.

Naspers slumped 2.23% to R3,510, tracking losses in Hong Kong-listed Tencent, of which it holds 31%.

MultiChoice lost 3.76% to R125.

Sibanye-Stillwater fell 3.38% to R13.43, extending its 14.98% loss last week. The miner, which has endured a five-month strike at its gold operations, raised nearly R2bn from shareholders last week and a similar amount in a forward gold-sale agreement with Citibank, as it prepares for a possible strike at its platinum operations later in 2019.