Johannesburg - The JSE was flat on Monday morning on a lack of local data and as public holidays in the UK and US kept volumes low.
“We’re seeing more of the same from last week‚ volatility and uncertainty and the persistence of the weak rand‚” said Ryan Wibberley‚ an equity dealer‚ Investec Asset Management. “Because of the holiday in the US and the UK there isn’t a lot of liquidity around so you either get nothing going on or one or two exaggerated moves.”
At 11:46‚ the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was little moved (0.08%) to 41 032.68 points‚ with industrials 0.22% firmer‚ while platinums and banks gave away 0.47% and 1.17% respectively.
Leading European share markets were firmer in early trade‚ with Paris’s CAC 40 index up 0.79%‚ while in the East Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 3.22% in what dealers attributed to yen/dollar strength.
“The banks don’t like rand weakness and are still digesting last week’s rate announcement. There was also some worrying news in the press about Capitec (CPI) and unsecured lending this weekend‚ which means that space is still under pressure. African Bank (ABL) in particular can’t seem to get going after the volatility following their results‚” said Wibberley.
Capitec gave away 2.68% to R192 while African Bank (ABL) was down 2.03% to R16.85. Nedbank (NED) and Standard Bank (SBK) also came under pressure losing 1.41% to R176.78 and 1.46% to R109.38 respectively.
Local industrials were buoyed by welcome gains in rand hedge counters. SAB Miller (SAB) was up 1.73% to R505‚ British American Tobacco (BTI) added 1.43% to R544.99 and Richemont improved 1.20% to R88.90.