JSE closes down as rand strengthens

Cape Town – The JSE closed weaker on Thursday, dragged down by large cap stocks in the resources and industrial sector which were affected by a firmer rand.  

The rand firmed to R13.56 against the greenback at the close of the market. By 18:30 it was trading at R13.63/$. 

Naspers [JSE:NPN] slipped 3.18% to R3 687.71 having drifted significantly off recent peaks exceeding R4 150 per share. Tencent and MultiChoice are the two largest contributors to cash flow.

However, all the other assets combined make losses and detract from cash flow, which was confirmed by Wednesday’s interim results.  

The All-Share index, meanwhile, dropped 1.07% followed by the blue-chip Top40 which slipped 1.27%, as all major sectors barring gold miners closed in the red.

Industrials were the worst affected, with a 1.66% drop. Gold miners, meanwhile, gained 0.50% 

Spot gold prices remained muted at $1 280 per ounce after upbeat sentiment on equities and positive US growth data dented the appeal of the safe-haven asset.  

South African headline producer inflation, meanwhile, decelerated in line with market expectations to 5.0% y-o-y in October from 5.2% in the previous month.  

The PPI for intermediate manufactured goods increased to 4.1% y-o-y in October from 2.1% in September due to higher annual price increases in the ‘recycling and manufacturing’ as well as ‘basic and fabricated metals’ categories. 

Producer inflation is expected to remain below 6% for the remainder of the year, but may tick up marginally from current levels off a lower base

Brent Crude oil, meanwhile, continues to soar, trading at $64.04 per barrel after OPEC oil producers and Russia appear set to extend output cuts until the end of 2018 as the group gathers in Vienna to finish rebalancing an oversupplied crude market.  

South African-born Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been approved to send cargo to the International Space Station in December using a Falcon 9 rocket that had already flown to space.

It marks the first time SpaceX will launch a reusable rocket for NASA, further validating the company's reusable rocket technology.