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Johannesburg - The JSE was desperately seeking direction on Monday morning, as the two major indices were only marginally higher by midday.
During a volatile morning session the All-share index moved in a range of about 350 points (0.75%) and was at one stage more than 0.50% lower than Friday’s close.
By Monday midday the All-share index was again just above the 51 000 level after breaking 52 000 last week, trading only 0.24% higher at 51 041 points. At the same stage the Top 40 index, which was equally volatile, was only 0.19% higher at 45 822.
The All-share index fell back sharply towards the end of last week after earlier reaching a new high, on the back of renewed uncertainly on the overseas markets, particularly on Wall Street.
There was not much more clarity on Monday, as Wall Street retreated further on Friday after the latest US jobs data report disappointed most investors.
The US created 209 000 jobs in July, still above the 200 000 mark, but well below the expected level of 233 000.
Although this news created slight doubt about the momentum of the US recovery, it eased some worries about the possibility of rising interest rates.
This helped the gold price stabilise above $1 290 and gave gold shares a boost, with the Gold index on the JSE gaining 0.92%.
There was also bad news about the eurozone’s bank problems, when it became known on Sunday that Portugal's central bank had injected €4.4bn into the crisis-hit Banco Espirito Santo.
This had an impact on Asian markets as well, as they were only marginally higher on Monday morning after running strongly last week.
Tokyo was flat, Hong Kong rose 0.24%, Sydney slumped 1.4% and Shanghai climbed 0.42%.
"European risk is having an impact on the broader market," Yoshihiro Okumura, general manager of research at Chibagin Asset Management, told Dow Jones Newswires.
But traders said a string of recent upbeat data from China was providing positive leads. Chinese manufacturing activity increased sharply in July, an official survey showed Friday, rising at its fastest rate in more than two years.
One share on the JSE that benefited from the strong run on the Asian markets is Naspers [JSE:NPN], which owns a 34% stake in high-flying Chinese internet giant Tencent. Although Tencent’s share price did not move much in Hong Kong on Monday, Naspers was 1.42% higher at a new high of R1 355.99.
The previous high was set on March 11, but the share price then lost about 30% of its value in a massive correction and traded briefly below R1 000 before recovering.
At Monday’s price level Naspers is now 30.8% higher than 90 days ago and 67% than a year ago. On August 2 last year the share traded at a 52-week low of R800. The price to earnings ratio now stands at 89.1.
The worries about the possible banking crisis in Portugal did not affect South African banking shares and by Monday midday the Financial index was 0.60% higher.
FirstRand [JSE:FSR] was one of the busiest shares on Monday, and more than 4 million shares worth more than R181m were traded. The share price rose by 1.05% to R44.09. Nedbank [JSE:NED] was 1.76% higher at R236.46 and Barclays Africa [JSE:BGA] improved by 0.36% to R168.17. Standard Bank [JSE:SBK] rose 0.76% to R145.60.
The strong run of Telkom [JSE:TKG] continued on Monday morning. A year ago on August 2 the share traded at a 52-week low of R20.15 and on Monday morning it set yet another high of R51.59, 3.18% higher than Friday and 148.1% higher than a year ago. Yet the share still trades at a price to earnings ratio of only 5.9%.
- Fin24
During a volatile morning session the All-share index moved in a range of about 350 points (0.75%) and was at one stage more than 0.50% lower than Friday’s close.
By Monday midday the All-share index was again just above the 51 000 level after breaking 52 000 last week, trading only 0.24% higher at 51 041 points. At the same stage the Top 40 index, which was equally volatile, was only 0.19% higher at 45 822.
The All-share index fell back sharply towards the end of last week after earlier reaching a new high, on the back of renewed uncertainly on the overseas markets, particularly on Wall Street.
There was not much more clarity on Monday, as Wall Street retreated further on Friday after the latest US jobs data report disappointed most investors.
The US created 209 000 jobs in July, still above the 200 000 mark, but well below the expected level of 233 000.
Although this news created slight doubt about the momentum of the US recovery, it eased some worries about the possibility of rising interest rates.
This helped the gold price stabilise above $1 290 and gave gold shares a boost, with the Gold index on the JSE gaining 0.92%.
There was also bad news about the eurozone’s bank problems, when it became known on Sunday that Portugal's central bank had injected €4.4bn into the crisis-hit Banco Espirito Santo.
This had an impact on Asian markets as well, as they were only marginally higher on Monday morning after running strongly last week.
Tokyo was flat, Hong Kong rose 0.24%, Sydney slumped 1.4% and Shanghai climbed 0.42%.
"European risk is having an impact on the broader market," Yoshihiro Okumura, general manager of research at Chibagin Asset Management, told Dow Jones Newswires.
But traders said a string of recent upbeat data from China was providing positive leads. Chinese manufacturing activity increased sharply in July, an official survey showed Friday, rising at its fastest rate in more than two years.
One share on the JSE that benefited from the strong run on the Asian markets is Naspers [JSE:NPN], which owns a 34% stake in high-flying Chinese internet giant Tencent. Although Tencent’s share price did not move much in Hong Kong on Monday, Naspers was 1.42% higher at a new high of R1 355.99.
The previous high was set on March 11, but the share price then lost about 30% of its value in a massive correction and traded briefly below R1 000 before recovering.
At Monday’s price level Naspers is now 30.8% higher than 90 days ago and 67% than a year ago. On August 2 last year the share traded at a 52-week low of R800. The price to earnings ratio now stands at 89.1.
The worries about the possible banking crisis in Portugal did not affect South African banking shares and by Monday midday the Financial index was 0.60% higher.
FirstRand [JSE:FSR] was one of the busiest shares on Monday, and more than 4 million shares worth more than R181m were traded. The share price rose by 1.05% to R44.09. Nedbank [JSE:NED] was 1.76% higher at R236.46 and Barclays Africa [JSE:BGA] improved by 0.36% to R168.17. Standard Bank [JSE:SBK] rose 0.76% to R145.60.
The strong run of Telkom [JSE:TKG] continued on Monday morning. A year ago on August 2 the share traded at a 52-week low of R20.15 and on Monday morning it set yet another high of R51.59, 3.18% higher than Friday and 148.1% higher than a year ago. Yet the share still trades at a price to earnings ratio of only 5.9%.
- Fin24
