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Johannesburg - The JSE has been trading at a new all-time high for the third consecutive day as the weaker rand supported some of the bigger dual-listed shares which earn most of their income in foreign currencies. The gains were however modest.
The rand traded almost 1% lower at R13.29 to the dollar by midday on Wednesday among investor concern over a possible further downgrade of South Africa’s credit rating by rating agency Moody’s.
The dual-listed shares, which make up more than half of the JSE’s market value, were also supported by strong global markets as tech shares rallied worldwide on the back of Apple's robust earnings.
Shares like Naspers [JSE:NPN], Vodacom [VOD] and MTN [JSE:MTN] all benefited from the global tech rally.
The JSE’s record levels are mainly due to the strong performance of these dual-listed shares, which are also listed on markets such as London and Frankfurt.
On Tuesday, Apple delivered surprisingly strong third-quarter earnings and signalled that its upcoming 10th anniversary iPhone line-up is on schedule. The news drove its stock up 6% to a record high in after-hours trading in New York.
By mid-morning the All-share index was 0.08% firmer on a new high of 55 436 points, and the Top 40 index traded 0.05% stronger at a new record of 49 063 points. The Industrial index was 0.25% higher at a new record of 83 084 points. The Financial index gained 0.28% but resources shares, which were the big movers the previous two days on the softer rand, lost 0.36% as investors took profits.
Naspers set an intraday-high of R2 925.00 in early trade, but lost momentum and at mid-morning was 0.27% softer at R2 900.50 as its Chinese subsidiary Tencent traded 0.57% lower in Hong Kong.
Among the heavyweights in the industrial sector, Richemont [JSE:CFR] traded 0.93% stronger at R114.40 and British American Tobacco (BAT) [JSE:BTI] gained 0.77% to R848.53. These shares made a substantial contribution to the record levels of the All-share index as Richemont has gained more than 24% for the year to date and BAT is more than 8% up.
Financial shares were mixed, with Standard Bank [JSE:SBK] 0.51% higher at R163.96 but FirstRand [JSE:FSR] shedding 0.33% to R51.70.
The big resources shares were modestly lower after significant gains over the previous seven days. Anglo American [JSE:AGL], which gained more than 17% over the past seven days before Wednesday’s trade, lost 0.39% to R217.16. BHP [JSE:BIL] was 1.11% softer at R287.33 and Glencore [JSE:GLN] lost 0.52% to R58.79. Glencore traded at new 52-week highs the previous two days.
