Softer Asian markets signal gloomy Monday on the JSE

Asian stock markets pointed to a gloomy Monday for the JSE.

Mainland China’s Shanghai composite index was down 3%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 0.85%.

In Sydney, BHP was down 2.6% to A$34.59, contributing to a 1.38% drop in the ASX 200 index.

Naspers looks set to continue last week’s slide, with its main asset, Tencent, down 1% to HK$320 in Hong Kong ahead of the JSE’s opening.

Naspers’s recent slide contributed to the Satrix Indi coming in as the JSE’s worst-performing exchange-traded fund (ETF) during the September quarter, with a 9.7% decline.

Palladium was the September quarter’s best investment. Standard Bank’s palladium price tracking exchange-traded note was the third quarter’s best performer, with a 25.2% gain, followed by Absa’s palladium ETF, which gained 23.54%. 

The rand, which strengthened from R14.84 to R14.75 to the dollar during the early hours of Monday morning, was trading at R14.79 to the dollar, R17.03 to the euro, and R19.40 to the pound.