Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - The JSE closed in the green as it was buoyed by retailers and financials which bounced on the back of the firmer rand.
The rand peaked to intra-day highs of R13.14 against the greenback which set the tone for rand sensitive stocks. Truworths [JSE:TRU], Woolworths [JSE:WHL] and Mr Price [JSE:MRP] all bounced to close the day up 1.95%, 0.87% and 0.91% respectively.
Gold Fields [JSE:GFI] managed to close up 1.75% and it was one of the top movers in the JSE Top-40 Index, however AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] came under significant pressure after the release of their results earlier this morning. AngloGold Ashanti’s results indicated an adjusted headline loss of $93m, as well as a free cash outflow of $161m for the 6 months ended 30 June 2017. The share closed 2.59% lower at R131.18 per share.
BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL] closed 1.08% firmer as it followed the trend in the primary Australian listing which closed up 1.22%. MTN retraced slightly today as it took a break from the upward trend that was recorded for the better part of last week. The stock closed down 0.87%, at R125.00 per share. Harmony Gold [JSE:HAR] also gave up some gains from last week as the stock ended the day down 0.68%.
Sasol [JSE:SOL] released a relatively good set of results which indicated descent increases in sales volumes as well as a strong operational performance. Headline earnings per share were down by 15%, however the firm recorded an increase in earnings per share of 54%. Core headline earnings were up by 6%. The stock price did bounce but it failed to break above R400 and eventually closed at R392.80, up 0.57% for the day. Notably, the Lake Charles project is 74% complete and the capital expenditure to date is $7.5bn. Shareholders should expect lower profit margins in the medium term as costs are expected to increase.
The JSE Top-40 index closed the day up 0.26%, while the JSE All-Share index inched up 0.20%. The Industrial index firmed 0.11%, while the Financials index was 0.13% firmer. The Resources index jumped 0.76% as it was pushed higher by firmer commodity prices.
On the commodities front, metals continued on their bullish trend from last week. Gold tracked higher by more than $7 from its open but failed to gain enough momentum to test $1 300 per ounce. The precious metal reached an intra-day high of $1 293.85/oz, and just after the JSE closed it was recorded at $1 292.44/oz.
Palladium continued to trade above $900 per ounce, reaching levels last recorded in 2001. The metal reached an intra-day high of $937.29/oz which aided palladium miners Sibanye Gold [JSE:SGL] and Impala Platinum [JSE:IMP] as they closed up 0.36% and 1.03% respectively. Platinum followed a similar trend to reach an intra-day high of $986.45/oz. It was trading at $983.85/oz when the JSE closed.
Brent Crude opened significantly higher today compared to the close on Friday, as it opened at $53.00 per barrel. The commodity failed to maintain this momentum as it did not test that level again during the course of the day. The commodity was trading at $51.90 per barrel just after 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
