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Cape Town - The JSE erased earlier losses to close firmer on Thursday in a session where the market struggled to get a catalyst for direction.
Global equity markets were calmer on Thursday compared to Wednesday when Donald Trump’s missile strike threats sent jitters into the markets.
Locally, the only significant set of data released was mining production numbers which improved year-on-year, but unfortunately slipped month-on-month to 0.9%. Gold production contracted by 7.1% year-on-year for the month of February from a prior recording of -7.7%.
Gains were relatively modest across most of the blue-chip counters where the biggest gainers included Rand Merchant Holdings [JSE:RMH], Standard Bank [JSE:SBK] and First Rand [JSE:FSR] which climbed 2.56%, 2.99% and 2.28% respectively.
Index heavyweight Naspers [JSE:NPN] gained 2.22%, while healthcare stocks Mediclinic [JSE:MEI] and Life Healthcare [JSE:LHC] gained 1.59% and 1.04% respectively. Growthpoint Properties [JSE:GRT] and Redefine Properties [JSE:RDF] added 1.81% and 1.05% respectively.
On the broader index Ascendis Health [JSE:ASC] and Clientele [JSE:CLI] jumped 3.79% and 5.26% respectively to end the day among the day’s biggest gainers. Datatec [JSE:DTC] added 4.75% to close at R20.74 per share, while Nampak [JSE:NPK] gained 3.04% to close at R13.90 per share.
Most of the miners came under pressure on Thursday as metal commodity prices retreated from their overnight highs. Stocks such as Royal Bafokeng Platinum [JSE:RBP] and Impala Platinum [JSE:IMP] lost 7.45% and 4.33% respectively. Gold miners AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:AGL] and Gold Fields [JSE:GFI] also came under pressure to shed 4.01% and 1.6% respectively.
Bidvest [JSE:BVT] and Bidcorp [JSE:BID] shed 1.94% and 1.62% respectively, listed property stocks Greenbay Properties [JSE:GRP] and Resilient [JSE:RES] closed 2.22% and 1.61% softer respectively. Retailers such as Massmart [JSE:MSM] and Mr Price [JSE:MRP] also lost 2.55% and 1.15% respectively.
The JSE All-Share Index eventually closed 0.55% higher, while the Top-40 Index managed to record gains of 0.68%. The Resources index closed 0.39% lower. However, the Industrials Index and Financials Index managed to record gains of 0.78% and 1.19% respectively.
Gold came under pressure as the US dollar rebounded from its lows. The precious metal slipped to a session low of $1 337.79/Oz and looked set to come under more pressure. The metal was trading at $1 338.18/Oz at 17:00 CAT.
Platinum and palladium also traded under pressure to trade at $929.75/Oz and $952.11/Oz at 17:00 CAT.
Brent Crude also eased from its overnight highs to trade at $71.36/barrel just after the JSE close.
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