JSE stands its ground as Turkish crisis pummels rand

The JSE stood its ground on Monday as the fall-out from the Turkish lira slump hit emerging currencies and spilled over to other global equity markets.

The contagion arising from the slump of the Turkish lira to a new all-time low overnight, resulted in the rand dropping to a level last recorded in June 2016. The rand dramatically dropped to a session low of R15.55/$ as the sell-off in emerging market currencies intensified, however it rebounded to trade at R14.37/$ at 17:00.

Asian counters traded weaker on Monday which saw the Nikkei and Hang Seng shed 1.98% and 1.52% respectively. The Shanghai Composite Index closed 0.43% weaker. In Europe, the major benchmarks were trading relatively softer except for the CAC 40 which was mostly flat.

On the JSE, rand hedges were buoyed by the weaker rand which saw them edge higher on the day. Blue-chip Anglo American [JSE:AGL] added 3.43% to close at R307.50, while fellow diversified miner, BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL] firmed by 2.03% to close at R310.32. Listed property stock, NEPI Rockcastle [JSE:NRP] managed to add 2.01% to end the day at R122.11, while Resilient [JSE:RES] closed at R56.00 after adding 3.02%.

Bid Corporation [JSE:BID] gained 1.95% to close at R289.15, while Discovery [JSE:DSY] rose 1.11% which saw the stock close at R165.63 per share. Index heavyweight Naspers [JSE:NPN] also helped lift the index higher after the stock gained 0.99% to close at R3 405.00 per share.

Sappi [JSE:SAP] closed among the day’s biggest losers following the release  of its third quarter results which indicated a decrease in EPS. The stock eventually closed 9.51% weaker at R91.30 per share. FirstRand [JSE:FSR] lost 3.52% to close at R63.05 while Absa Group [JSE:ABG] eased to R160.25 after shedding 1.3%.

Barloworld [JSE:BAW] weakened to close at R119.89 per share after the stock dropped 5.38%. Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS] closed 3.59% lower at R415.79, while Raubex [JSE:RBX] lost 3.48% to close at R20.27 per share.

The JSE All-Share index closed 0.32% firmer while the blue-chip JSE Top-40 index inched up 0.47%. The Financials index came under pressure because of the weaker rand which saw it drop 0.8%. The Industrials and Resources indices managed to firm 0.4% and 1.2% respectively.

Gold slid below $2 000/Oz after hitting a session low of $1 194.98/oz. It recovered marginally to trade at $1 197.01/oz at 17:00. Platinum was 2.56% to trade at $806.42/oz, while palladium had lost 0.98% to trade at $901.71/oz.

Brent crude was mixed in today’s session which saw it trade flat at $72.80/barrel just after the JSE close.

At 17:00, Bitcoin was down 0.26% to trade at $6 350.00/coin while Ethereum was down 4.23% to trade at $310.74/coin.

• The JSE market update is from GT247.com, an online broker and authorised financial services provider.

* SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE UPDATE: Get Fin24's top morning business news and opinions in your inbox.