Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - Share prices on the JSE gained for the third consecutive day on Thursday as world shares hit their fourth all-time high in less than a month, with investors wagering policy tightening in the United States would be limited.
The news that Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen did not sound more hawkish in her appearance before Congress this week, on slow inflation concerns, was seen as a green light for risk taking.
It lifted Wall Street to record peaks on Wednesday and lowered bond yields almost everywhere, starting a run on emerging markets everywhere.
Emerging market currencies made a strong run, with the rand improving to R13.19 to the dollar by mid-morning.
A strong rand normally puts a damper on prices for the JSE's dual-listed shares, as their earnings in foreign currencies are worth less in rand, but investors reacted positively to global expectations of stronger economic growth worldwide.
Sentiment received another boost when China reported upbeat data on exports and imports for June, the latest sign that global trade is finding some real traction again.
It helped push Asian shares up more than 1% and lifted MSCI's 47-country world index to its latest record high, though European markets were more subdued after a 1.6% gain on Wednesday - the biggest gain since April's French election victory for Emmanuel Macron.
Prospects for the local economy are still gloomy as the news is dominated by reports of corruption and state capture, but the big dual-listed shares on the JSE these days earn most of their income abroad
The result was that the All-share index was 0.37% higher at 53 103 points at mid-morning, while the Top 40 index was 0.33% stronger at 46 828 points. The market received broad support from the Industrial index, which includes most of the dual-listed shares, which traded 0.41% higher.
The stronger rand is also good news for the Financial index, which rose 0.66%, but the currency put caps on the prices of resources shares as mines receive less in rand for their dollar-priced commodities. By mid-morning the Resources index was 0.15% lower and the Gold index 0.07% softer, despite higher precious metal prices.
Naspers [JSE:NPN] again set the tone on the JSE and traded 1.25% higher at R2 660.84. The share gained more than 5% over the previous seven days. Naspers received a boost from Asia, where Tencent traded 1.14% stronger at HK$284.40. Naspers owns 34.4% of the Chinese internet giant, which represents most of Naspers’s value and income.
Telecommunications shares were again in demand and MTN [JSE:MTN] rose strongly for the second day, gaining 1.24% to R120.20. MTN was one of the busiest shares on the JSE in terms of volume and value, and more than 3 million shares were sold for more than R400m.
Vodacom [JSE:VOD] was only 0.02% higher at R170.28, but the share earlier traded at an intraday 52-week high of R171.
Among the banking shares FirstRand [JSE:FSR] traded 1.56% higher at R49.21 and Standard Bank [JSE:SBK] was 1.07% stronger at R150.48. Barclays Africa [JSE:BGA] was 0.81% higher at R145.21.
Commodity giants Anglo American [JSE:ANG] and BHP [JSE:BIL] were only modestly higher. Anglo gained 0.50% to R188.11 and BHP only 0.11% to R221.10. The company said in a strategy update that it managed to reduce unit costs by 40% since financial year 2012 (the company reports at the end of June).
The platinum price improved for the second day, trading 2.88% higher at $916.66, but platinum shares hardly moved. Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS] was only 0.37% higher ar R311.34 and Impala Platinum [JSE:IMP] was 0.14% stronger at R35.85.
