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Johannesburg - The All-share index on the JSE continued its steady rise of the past few weeks on Friday morning. By mid-morning it was at the highest level this year, and on a new 52-week high. The index is however still about 1% lower than its all-time high of 55 188 points, reached in April 2015.
At mid-morning the All-share was 0.65% higher at 54 638 points, beating the previous 52-week high of 54 549 set on May 22 this year.
The Top 40 index gained 0.77% to 48 279 points and was also at a new 52-week high.
The All-share index is about 7.7% higher for the year to date, but it has not been a smooth move. Just over three weeks after reaching a 52-week high in May, the index was back at levels seen at the beginning of the year. It dropped back to 50 831 points on June 15, compared to 50 653 points on January 1.
The sharp pullback was the result of political uncertainty following the sacking of Pravin Gordhan as minister of finance, and the downgrade of South Africa’s international credit rating by the international credit rating agencies.
Share prices on the JSE have since been supported by stronger international markets, and at times by the weaker rand as a result of the political turmoil. Before Friday’s trade, the index was 2.61% higher over the previous seven days and 4.81% over the past 30 days.
The Top 40 index gained 2.65% over the previous seven days and 4.76% over the previous 30 days, driven mostly by the Industrial index which includes most of the big dual-listed shares.
At mid-morning the Industrial index was 0.91% higher; it gained 3.31% over the previous seven days and 3.86% over the previous 30 days. The index is at 82 712 points, just below the 52-week high of 82 828 points. The Financial index was 0.42% higher and the Resources index 0.19% firmer.
The strong run in the Industrial index was the result of a surge of more than 6% over the past week in the share price of Naspers [JSE:NPN], which gained 1% in morning trade to reach a new all-time high of R2 816.94 by mid-morning.
The top shares on the JSE continue to receive support from strong overseas markets, with Wall Street at record levels, European markets strong and Asian markets steady at the highest levels in a decade. The foreign markets on which the big dual-listed shares - which represent more than half of the market's value - are also listed are riding the crest of a wave on expectations that the world’s central banks are not in a hurry to tighten monetary policy.
Among the other dual-listed shares, Richemont [JSE:CFR] gained 1.67% to R110.50 and British American Tobacco [JSE:BTI] traded 0.80% higher at R921.44.
Remgro [JSE:REM] was by far the busiest shares on the JSE, with more than 5 millon shares being traded for more than R1bn. The heavy trade is the result of proposals to consolidated Remgro’s shareholding in Distell [JSE:DST] through various instruments into a direct holding in a new company now known as'‘new Distell'.
Remgro’s share price was however only 0.23% higher at R214.50 and has hardly moved over the past week. The stock is more than 3% higher over the past month. Distell was 0.71% higher at R143.36.
The market also received limited support from news that the Reserve Bank has dropped the repo rate to boost the struggling South African economy. Telecommunications, retail and banking shares benefited most.
Vodacom [JSE:VOD], which announced solid results earlier this week, gained 2.19% to trade at a new 52-week high of R177.03. MTN [JSE:MTN] was 2.07% stronger at R126.01.
The Foschini group [JSE:TFG] traded 1.36% higher at R153.26 and Woolworths [JSE:WHL] gained 0.43% to R63.55.
Standard Bank [JSE:SBK] traded 0.68% higher at R159.88, and is now 6.66% higher over the past seven days and 12.61% up over 30 days. FirstRand [JSE:FSR], which gained 6.19% over seven days and 9.76% over 30 days, traded 0.12% softer at R51.76.
