Local equities weaker as euphoria fades

Cape Town - The JSE closed weaker on Monday as the blue chip counters weighed down on the local bourse.

The euphoria from last week’s political events seems to have simmered down particularly for the financial markets, as attention now shifts to the Budget speech on Wednesday.

AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] and NEPI Rockcastle [JSE:NRP] led the losses amongst the blue chip counters as they ended the day down 2.74% and 2.88% respectively. Index heavyweight, Naspers [JSE:NPN] lost 2.52% to close at R3 300.00 per share.

On the broader index Pan African Resources [JSE:PAN] and Curro Holdings [JSE:COH] came under pressure to close the day down 11.45% and 6.66% respectively.

Super Group [JSE:SPG] came under pressure despite reporting a relatively decent set of results. The stock lost 7.89% to close at R42.36 per share.

Other major moves lower were recorded in Dis-Chem [JSE:DCP] and EOH Holdings [JSE:EOH] which lost 3.61% and 4.28% respectively. Listed property stocks Greenbay Properties [JSE:GRP] and Fortress B [JSE:FFB] continued to trade under pressure, as they lost 2.96% and 1.10% respectively.

Some of the listed property stocks such as Intu Properties [JSE:ITU] and Fortress A [JSE:FFA] did stage a minor comeback to end the day up 0.97% and 0.68% respectively.

Other top movers on the day included Bid Corp [JSE:BID] which gained 3.78% to close at R270.75 per share, whilst platinum miners Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS] and Impala Platinum [JSE:IMP] jumped 2.69% and 2.89% respectively. Truworths [JSE:TRU] and Telkom [JSE:TKG] added 1.03% and 3.03% respectively.

The broader JSE All-Share index eventually closed the day down 0.71%, whilst the JSE Top-40 index lost 0.75%. The Financials index barely managed to close in the green as it ended the day 0.08% firmer. The Industrials index lost 1.24% whilst the Resources index lost 0.35%.

The US dollar continued to strengthen against a basket of major currency pairs. As a result the Rand traded softer against the greenback to reach an intra-day low of R11.68/$, which is where it was trading at 17:00.

Brent Crude continued to recover after a minor slump last week. The commodity broke above $65/barrel to reach a day’s high of $65.45/barrel. It was trading at $65.29/barrel just after the JSE close.

Gold was trading mostly flat as it failed to gain any significant upside momentum. The precious metal peaked at $1 351.41/Oz before retracing to trade at $1 346.51/Oz just after the close.

Platinum recorded marginal gains as it reached an intra-day high of $1 014.22/Oz. At 5pm the metal was trading at $1 009.51/Oz. Palladium came under pressure after printing an intra-day high of $1 051.55/Oz. It retraced to trade at $1 035.30/Oz just after the close.

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