JSE powers to new all-time highs on Naspers push

Cape Town - The JSE powered to new all-time highs on the All-Share Index as blue chip stocks continued to propel the bourse higher.

The JSE All-Share Index hit a fresh all-time high of 61 298.60 points whilst the ALSI December futures jumped to a new high of 55 539 points.

Naspers [JSE:NPN] easily opened above R4 000 per share as it took a leaf from Tencent Holdings which closed up 2.38% on the Hang Seng this morning. Naspers reached a new all-time high of R4 142.99 per share before it retraced marginally towards the close, to end the day up 2.38% at R4 090.00.

Capitec Bank [JSE:CPI] also reached a new all-time of high of R1 000 per share despite some weakness in the rand earlier on. The stock closed at R993.92 per share, up 1.16% for the day. Other banking stocks such as First Rand [JSE:FSR] and Barclays Africa [JSE:BGA] also firmed which saw them strengthen by 1.88% and 1.35% respectively.

Other top movers included Barloworld [JSE:BAW] which jumped 8.67% to close at R144.28 per share, while Life Healthcare [JSE:LHC] firmed by 6.78% on the back of a relatively decent set of full-year results. Reunert [JSE:RLO] firmed by 4.52% mainly due to the release of its full-year results which showed decent increases in earnings for the year. Transaction Capital [JSE:TCP] reported another solid set of full-year results which resulted in the stock closing the day up 2.82%.

Net 1 UEPS [JSE:NT1] was one of the biggest losers of the day as it shed 9.97%. Mediclinic [JSE:MEI] and Murray and Roberts [JSE:MUR] continued to trade under pressure as they lost another 6.93% and 5.00% respectively. Retailers came under some pressure due to the rand which showed signs of weakness earlier on. Woolworths [JSE:WHL] lost 2.13% while Massmart [JSE:MSM] shed 4.53% to close at R107.50 per share.

Coronation Fund Managers [JSE:CML] came under pressure due to their full-year results which indicated slight decreases in profit margins compared to the same period last year. The stock closed the day down 1.89% at R74.86 per share. Alexander Forbes [JSE:AFH] came under pressure after the release of their trading statement, as it closed the day down 2.63%.

The JSE All-Share Index closed up 1.18% while the Top-40 Index jumped 1.36%. All the major indices on the JSE closed in the green as they benefited from the overall upside momentum. The Industrials Index firmed by 1.06% while the Financials Index gained 0.84%. The biggest gainer was the Resources Index which jumped 2.20%.

Brent Crude had firmed by 0.72% to trade at $62.66 per barrel when the JSE closed. This supported Sasol [JSE:SOL] which closed the day up 2.26% at R428.63 per share.

Gold found some momentum towards the close as the US dollar weakened against a basket of major currency pairs. Gold was trading at $1 283.18/oz when the JSE closed.

Platinum gained more than 1.5% to peak at $937.63/oz. The metal retraced slightly to trade at $936.68/oz when the JSE closed. Palladium followed a similar upward trend and it was trading at $992.55/oz when the JSE closed.