Johannesburg - The JSE closed Tuesday’s session in the red with platinums making gains due to potential supply constraints‚ while retailers took a beating on market expectations that retail earnings could be lower than previously expected.
At 17:00‚ the All Share
[JSE:J203] index was down 0.58% to 40 144.07 points‚ with the Top 40 - (Tradeable)
[JSE:J200] index dropping 0.46% to 35 508.01 points‚ while the platinum index lifted 1.33% and retailers shed 3.79%. Banks were also hard hit with the index giving up 1.59%.
“Retailers have taken quite a hammering the last few days‚ with Foschini and Woolies down by double-digits since Friday and Shoprite releasing a worse-than-expected trading update on Monday‚” said Viv Govender‚ trader at Vunani Private Clients.
Since Friday Woolies (WHL) has lost 12%‚ The Foschini Group (TFG) has shed 13.5% and Shoprite (SHP) gave up almost 9%.
“There are fears that the sector is overpriced with historically very high price to earnings ratio’s and there is reason for caution with the pricet to earnings ratio’s not backed up by earnings coming through‚” he said.
The platinum spot price surged to a three-month intraday high on Tuesday amid potential supply constraints after Anglo Platinum said it was putting four shafts at its Rustenburg complex onto care and maintenance. At 17:00 the platinum price was trading 2.45% higher at $1‚691.50/oz from $1‚651.00/oz on Monday.
At 17:17 leading European indices were mainly in the red with London’s FTSE 100 off 0.05%‚ while the Dow Jones Industrial index was 0.17% softer.
Among individual shares on the JSE‚ Anglo American (AGL) shed 3.71% to close at R275.40‚ while BHP Billiton (BIL) added 0.38% to R292.11.
Anglo American Platinum (AMS) dipped 0.82% to close at R487‚ while Lonmin (LON) jumped 4.30% to R48.50 and Aquarius (AQP) surged 8.74% to R9.95.
Retailer Mr Price (MPC) shed 5.25% to close at R126.25 and The Foschini Group (TFG) dropped 5.20% to R124.40. Shoprite (SHP) closed 2.77% lower at R182.80 and Pick n Pay shed 2.17% to R45.
Woolies (WHL) closed 4.31% lower at R63.49 and Spar (SPP) lost 2.20% to R120.30.
In banking Abil (ABL) gave up 3.30% to R30.44‚ Nedbank (NED) was down 2.05% to R191.99 and ABSA (ASA) lost 1.79% to R165. First Rand (FSR) left 2.56% behind at R30.89 and RMB Holdings (RMH) was off 2.39% at R42.07.
Follow Fin24 on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest.