MARKET WRAP: JSE lower in broad-based losses with banks continuing to slide

The JSE started the week on a negative note, posting broad-based losses as local and international events gave investors few reasons to be bullish.

The JSE opened late on Monday after a technical glitch, with volumes failing to pick up significantly during the course of the day’s trade. Turnover amounted to about R12bn, compared to the daily average of R24bn.

Risk-off activity due to trade tension was the theme on most international markets, with local stocks also contending with continuing uncertainty regarding load shedding.

Miners generally failed to react positively to the latest iteration of the Mining Charter, released on Friday. The document reaffirmed the principle that previous empowerment deals would be recognised, although some industry concerns remained. Gold miners were firmer on Monday, however, as investors sought safe-haven assets.

Rand hedges were among the poorest performers on the day, despite a weaker rand. Pressure on banks continued, bringing the cumulative losses since Friday to 7%.

Analysts expect pressure on the local currency to continue this week, with political risks in Europe also simmering.

The all share fell 0.73% to 57,236.8 points and the top 40 lost 0.63%. Banks gave up 2.87%, general retailers 2.84% and financials 2%. Gold miners gained 1.55%.

British American Tobacco dropped 1.32% to R659.

Standard Bank slumped 3.52% to R190.17.

Invicta Holdings plummeted 8.36% to R36.70 after warning on Friday that annual headline earnings were set to drop 81%, due to a costly tax liability arising from past transactions.

PPC dropped 1.91% to R7.20. It said earlier that headline earnings per share increased 114% to 15c for the year to end-March. This was towards the lower end of its recent guidance.

Mr Price fell 5.06% to R230.52, Steinhoff Africa Retail 2.43% to R18.05 and Shoprite 3.13% to R225.87.

Liberty Holdings fell 4.03% to R119, as it scrambles with the fallout from a data breach that occurred last week.

At 5.40pm the Dow was 0.64% lower at 24,928.7 points while in Europe, the DAX 30 had fallen 1.28%, the CAC 40 0.96% and the FTSE 100 0.05%.

At the same time, gold was flat at $1,278.76 an ounce, while platinum had lost 0.57% to $882.32. Brent crude had gained 1.97% to $74.48.

The top 40 Alsi futures index lost 0.56% to 51,114 points. The number of contracts traded was 73,942 from Friday’s 40,630, ahead of the quarterly futures close-out on Thursday.