Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - The rand faced significant pressure on Thursday as it weakened to an intra-day low of R13.71 against the dollar. However the local currency managed to bottom out, as the US dollar lost some ground against major currency pairs. Just after the JSE closed the rand was trading at R13.53/$.
Diversified miners Anglo American PLC [JSE:AGL] and BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL] were among the losers on Thursday, as they lost 0.73% and 1.51% respectively.
Hospitality stocks Sun International [JSE:SUI] and Tsogo Sun [JSE:TSH] also came under pressure, closing 3.39% and 2.77% lower.
The Resources index came under pressure due to relatively subdued metal commodity prices. This resulted in JSE-listed miners Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS] and Kumba Iron Ore [JSE:KIO] shedding 2.62% and 2.19% respectively. Nampak [JSE:NPK] was the biggest loser of the day as it lost 5.38%.
The exception to the trend was Sibanye-Stillwater [JSE:SGL] which tracked higher on the day to close 3.05% firmer.
Major gainers on the day included Royal Bafokeng Platinum [JSE:RBP] which jumped 4.87%, whilst Sappi [JSE:SAP] gained 2.26%.
Rand-sensitive stocks Woolworths [JSE:WHL] and Barclays Africa [JSE:BGA] inched up on the back of the pullback of the rand to end the day up 1.11% and 0.88% respectively.
Meanwhile Netcare [JSE:NTC] and Tongaat Hulett [JSE:TON] also fared well, gaining 4.13% and 3.61% respectively.
The JSE All-Share index eventually closed down 0.40%, whilst the blue chip Top-40 index was down by 0.36%. All of the major indices closed in the red with the Industrials index closing down 0.22%, the Resources index 0.75% and Financials 0.40%.
Locally, StatsSA on Thursday released producer price index data. The year-on-year figure was recorded at 4.2% on the back of an estimate of 4.1%. The month-on-month figure decreased to 0.4% from a prior recording of 0.5%, but this was higher than the forecast of 0.3%.
In the US, economists were focused on the final GDP quarter-on-quarter estimate, which came in better than expected. The annualized quarter-on-quarter GDP increase was 3.1%, slightly better than the forecasted 3.0%.
Initial jobless claims numbers in the US were slightly worse than expected, however, with claims from last week climbing to 272 000, just above the forecast of 270 000.
The US dollar did not react much to this data at first as it continued on its downward trend, but it started to gain some steam towards the close of the JSE.
Gold, meanwhile, firmed from Wednesday's close to peak at $1 286.93 per ounce before it lost some steam to trade at $1 283.93/oz just after the JSE closed.
Platinum and Palladium traded mostly flat and failed to gain any significant upside momentum. Palladium was trading at $931.85/oz after the close of the local bourse, while Platinum was recorded at $918.30/oz.
Brent crude remained largely steady as it managed to track back above $58 per barrel to peak at $58.65. Just after the JSE closed it, was trading at $58.34 per barrel.
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
