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Cape Town - The JSE was muted on Friday after a relatively subdued trading session with local equities not gaining any significant momentum.
Blue chip stocks Sappi [JSE:SAP] and Sasol [JSE:SOL] recorded decent gains to close the day up 2.93% and 1.14% respectively.
Glencore [JSE:GLN], which had a minor selloff Thursday recovered some of those losses to close the day up 2.91%. The trend was similar among miners Harmony Gold [JSE:HAR], African Rainbow Minerals [JSE:ARI] and BHP Billiton, which gained 2.13%, 0.81% and 1.43% respectively.
Rand hedges British American Tobacco [JSE:BTI] and Mondi PLC [JSE:MNP] gained on the back of the weaker rand to close the day up 0.37% and 0.90%.
This wasn’t the case for all rand hedges as Richemont [JSE:CFR] and Steinhoff shedding 2.46% and 4.26%. The drop in Richemont shares was rather surprising, given its decent results indicated in its six months results statement released Friday morning.
Despite a weakening rand some banking stocks closed in the green as evidenced by First Rand [JSE:FSR] and Barclays Africa [JSE:BGA] which closed up 0.46% and 0.06% respectively.
Telkom [JSE:TKG] shed 6.39% after the release of their six months results for the year ended 30 September 2017. The results indicated a decrease in both basic earnings per share and headline earnings per share of 7% and 7.4% respectively.
READ: Telkom says government has identified potential buyers of stake
Other notable moves lower were from Stadio [JSE:SDO] and ArcelorMittal [JSE:ACL] which lost 7.31% and 8.85% respectively.
Retailers came under more pressure Friday due to the weaker rand. Truworths [JSE:TRU] and Massmart [JSE:MSM] closed the day 1.47% and 3.04% lower.
All-Share
The JSE Top-40 index eventually closed up 0.17% while the broader All-Share index gained 0.14%. The Industrials index lost 0.88% while the Financials rose 0.21%.
The Resources index was the biggest gainer of the day as it jumped 1.62%.
The rand slid against the US dollar to reach a low of R14.41/$. It recovered slightly, however, to trade at R14.32/$ at the close of the JSE. The South African benchmark 10-year treasury yield had increased to 9.355% when the JSE closed.
READ: Rand weakens on rumours of free education, ratings downgrades
Metal commodities were softer Friday, with palladium losing more than $10 per ounce to reach an intra-day low of $9 97.25/Oz. Platinum followed a similar trend, but recovered to trade in the green by the time the JSE closed.
Platinum miners were mixed as Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS] lost 0.06%, but Lonmin [JSE:LON] managed to gain 1.64%. Platinum was trading at $938.92/Oz when the JSE closed, while Palladium was recorded at $1 001.81/Oz.
Gold also traded flat as it failed to get a clear direction. The precious metal was recorded at $1 284.61/Oz when the JSE closed after only having managed to peak at $1287.52/Oz.
Brent Crude, meanwhile, remained mostly unchanged as it traded within a similar range to Thursday. The commodity only managed to reach a high of $64.27 per barrel before it retraced to trade at $64.04 per barrel when the JSE closed.
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