Publications
Partners
Johannesburg -The JSE closed weaker on Wednesday as local retail sales data disappointed.
Local retail sales numbers came in worse than expected as the year-on-year number was recorded 1.8% on the back of an estimate of 2.5%. Retail sales month-on-month decreased to -0.6% from a prior recording of 0.2%.
Major retailers such as Woolworths [JSE:WHL] and Truworths [JSE:TRU] traded under pressure to close the day lower, as they lost 3.92% and 2.68% respectively. However it wasn’t all doom and gloom for the retailers as Mr Price [JSE:MPC] and Shoprite [JSE:SHP] ended the day in the green as they closed up 0.77% and 0.45% respectively.
Bidcorp [JSE:BID] and MTN [JSE:MTN] were among the top movers of the day, closing up 2.40% and 1.23% respectively. Richemont [JSE:CFR] released a decent five month sales report this morning, but the stock struggled to gain any significant momentum above R120 per share to eventually to close the day flat at R120.30.
AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] lost most of its earlier momentum in its push to R130 a share to close the day flat at R126.79.
The rand weakened further on Wednesday due to US dollar strength as well as the weak South African retail sales numbers. The rand dropped to R13.17 against the greenback towards the close of the JSE.
The JSE All-share index eventually closed down 0.34%, while the Top-40 index slipped 0.33%. Most of the major indices on the JSE traded under pressure, which saw Industrials lose 0.22%, Financials down 0.47% and Resources giving up 0.75%.
Gold was looking positive in early morning trading but it lost significant ground during the course of the day’s session to trade at $1 322.80 per ounce when the JSE closed. The precious metal had managed to peak at $1 337.18/oz in earlier trading. Metals such as palladium and platinum followed a similar trend as they traded under pressure for the most of the day. Palladium was trading at $942.10/oz just after the JSE closed and platinum at $982.52/oz.
Brent Crude was mostly unchanged after the release of US Crude Oil Inventories numbers. US Inventories increased to 5.9 million barrels on the back of an estimate of 4.1 million barrels. Brent Crude was trading at $54.77 per barrel when the JSE closed.
SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE UPDATE: Get Fin24's top morning business news and opinions in your inbox.
Read Fin24's top stories trending on Twitter: Fin24’s top stories
