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Johannesburg - Share prices on the JSE continued their recovery of the past few days on Tuesday, and the major indices have now recovered almost all the losses of the past few weeks.
With the rand still under pressure against a rampant dollar,
dual-listed shares continued to edge higher and quite a few of them, including Naspers [JSE:NPN], Anglo American [JSE:AGL] and Mondi Plc [JSE:MNP], are
now trading on 52-week highs.
Besides the weaker rand, which supports companies which earn most
of their income abroad as this is now worth more in rand, the mood is
also supported by local economic news which indicates that
economic activities may have reached a turning point for the good.
South Africa’s new vehicle sales rose 6.3% year-on-year to 50 322 units in September, while exports were up 10.3% to 36 134 units compared to the same month a year earlier, according to statistics announced on Monday.
By mid-morning, the All-share index was already 0.70% higher at 56 166 points, back above 56 000 points. The Top 40 index gained 0.77% to 49 991 points.
The All-share index recently dropped almost 2.5% from 56 366 points on September 11 to only 54 994 points on September 27 before the turnaround. The index is however still almost 1% lower than the all-time high of 56 656 points reached on August 27 this year.
The Resources index was the biggest mover, gaining 0.95% on the back of the weaker rand which traded 0.56% lower than the previous day’s close at R13.65 to the dollar.
The Industrial index was 0.85% higher, with Naspers trading firmly above R3 000 at an intraday all-time high by mid-morning. The Financial index hardly moved and traded only 0.05% higher.
Naspers has
lately been quite volatile in a band between R2 850 and R3 000, but the share gained
2.28% in morning trade to R3 040.77 by mid-morning. Before Tuesday's trade, Naspers was more than 2.5% higher over the past 30 days and more than
6.5% over the past 90 days.
Naspers’s gains are predominantly due to spectacular rises in the share price of Tencent, the Chinese internet giant listed in Hog Kong of which Naspers owns 34.4%. Tencent traded 3.15% higher at $346.20 on Tuesday, just below the all-time high of$347.20 reached last week. Tencent gained more than 80% for the year to date, after it started the year at $189.40.
Richemont [JSE:CFR] was also 0.45% higher on a new high of R123.87, and the share is now already more than 36% higher for the year to date.
Among the top resources shares Anglo American gained 4.79% to trade on a new high of R252.20, but BHP [JSE: BIL] was only 0.95% higher at R244.45.
Iron ore producer Kumba [JSE:KIO] jumped 4.35% to a new 52-week high of R230.00. Exxarro [JSE:EXX], which owns 20% of Kumba, gained 5.88% to R133.15 and is also on a 52-week high. Exxaro also jumped on news that the National Union of Mineworkers reached a wage agteement with the group and called off a strike at its mines.
Mondi Plc [JSE:MNP] was also on a high after it gained 1.46% to R377.03, and Mondi Limited [JSE:MND] traded 1.48% higher on a high of R375.03. Sappi [JSE:SAP], the other packaging giant listed on the JSE, gained 1.51% to R375.03.
