Johannesburg - The JSE was once again in limbo on Tuesday morning as the strong rand continued to dampen demand for dual-listed shares.
Many of the top share prices showed little movement by mid-morning, and the major indices were also marginally higher or lower.
The rand traded at R13.10 to the dollar, in response to higher commodity prices and disappointing economic data from the US. The currency is now at its strongest level since April 26 and breached the important technical level of R13.25/$, which could lead to even further gains.
The result was that the All-share index at mid-morning was only 0.07% higher at 54 088 points, while the Top 40 index gained only 0.13% to trade at 47 498 points.
The stronger rand helped
the Financial index 0.47% higher, but the Resources index was 0.41% softer despite stronger commodity prices.
Most of the big shares in the Industrial index were marginally in the black, but the index was held back by Naspers [JSE:NPN], its biggest share, which initially lost more than 2% on news that the company is venturing into the fast-food delivery business. By mid-morning the Industrial index was only 0.13% higher.
Naspers, which has been trading at all-time highs lately, gaining 16.3% over the past 30 days and more than 34% over the past 90 days, later recovered and at mid-morning was 0.89% lower at R2 705.65.
Naspers has taken up new shares valued at R5.4bn in the online food takeaway firm Delivery Hero, one of Europe’s biggest start-ups.
Berlin-based Delivery Hero, founded in 2011 and now operating across more than 40 countries, said last month it could consider an initial public offering to raise capital to bulk up and face competition from the likes of Uber.
Richemont [JSE:CFR] was 0.23% lower at R108.46, but British American Tobacco [JSE:BTI] gained 0.76% to R923.53. Steinhoff [JSE:SHF], one of the busiest shares, gained 0.92% to R68.16.
Aspen [JSE:APN], which has been under pressure lately on news that European Union antitrust regulators will investigate whether it is charging excessive prices for five key cancer drugs, recovered strongly and was 1.51% higher at R279.06.
Vodacom [JSE:VOD] continued to benefit from news that the company will buy a 35% stake in Safaricom by issuing stock to its parent company Vodafone, which will raise Vodafone’s stake in Vodacom to about 70%. By mid-morning Vodacom was already 3.51% higher at R158.23.
Vodafone stocks in London gained more than 3% on the back of the transaction and strong results.
MTN [JSE:MTN] was 1.07% stronger at R122.40 after it gained almost 4% over the previous seven days.
FirstRand [JSE:FSR] traded above R50 again after firming 0.84% to R50.20, and Barclays Africa [JSE:BGA] was 1.6% higher at R146.25.
Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS], which gained more than 7% over the past month, lost 2.76% in response to the strong rand, despite platinum trading at a two-week high.
Lonmin [JSE:LON] lost 2.51% to R17.46 after announcing a disappointing trading update for the second quarter of its financial year.