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Cape Town - The JSE opened the week firmer lifted mostly by index heavyweight Naspers [JSE:NPN] and rand hedge stocks.
Naspers reached a new all-time high of R4 000 per share on Monday as it closed the day 3.90% firmer at R3 995.01 per share. This move was as a result of the trading statement for the 6 months ended 30 September 2017 released on Friday evening after the markets closed.
The statement indicated that Naspers is expecting core headline earnings per share to be between 62% and 67% higher than the comparable period last year.
Mr Price [JSE:MRP] rose on the back of its 6 months earnings results which were released Monday morning.
While tough operating conditions were cited in the results Mr Price also reported an increase in diluted headline earnings per share of 23.6%, which was mainly driven by its apparel brands. The stock closed the day up 3.68% at R201.99 per share.
Other retailers such as Spar Group [JSE:SPP], Massmart [JSE:MSM] and Truworths [JSE:TRU] recorded gains of 1.39%, 1.94% and 3.50% respectively.
Rand hedges Richemont [JSE:CFR] and Mondi PLC [JSE:MNP] inched up 1.05% and 0.65%.
Banking stocks had a mixed day as Barclays Africa [JSE:BGA] and Nedbank [JSE:NED] inched up 0.16% and 0.09%. However First Rand [JSE:FSR] and Standard Bank [JSE:SBK] came under some pressure to end the day 0.71% and 0.30% lower.
Murray and Roberts [JSE:MUR] ended the day among the biggest losers as it closed down 5.46% at R14.20 per share.
ArcelorMittal [JSE:ACL] and Ascendis Health [JSE:ASC], meanwhile, lost 2.83% and 4.56% respectively, while Brait [JSE:BAT] remained under pressure losing another 4.32% to close at R42.10 per share.
Vodacom [JSE:VOD] and MTN [JSE:MTN] also came under pressure to end the day 2.10% and 1.59% weaker.
All-share
The JSE All-Share index closed the day 0.62% firmer, while the JSE Top-40 index gained 0.78%. The Resources index came under pressure to shed 0.97% while the Financials index lost 0.31%. Industrials firmed on the back of Naspers to gain 1.78%.
The rand, meanwhile, was mostly unchanged from Friday’s close as it continued to hover just above R14 to the US dollar. The local currency was trading R14.04/$ when the JSE closed, after having peaked at an intra-day high of R13.97 to the US dollar.
Brent Crude traded weaker compared to where it closed on Friday. The commodity failed to gain any significant momentum as traders await the outcome of the OPEC meeting scheduled to take place in Vienna, Austria on the 30th of November. Brent Crude was trading at $61.83 per barrel when the JSE closed.
Despite the US dollar coming under pressure earlier on, Gold came under pressure to reach an intra-day low of $1 284.85 per ounce. As a result the gold mining index on the JSE lost 2.89% and the precious metal itself was recorded at $1285.30/Oz just after the JSE closed.
Gold miners traded weaker due to weaker prices for the precious metal, which resulted in stocks such as Harmony Gold [JSE:HAR] and AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] closing the day 2.93% and 2.46% weaker.
Platinum lost more than 1.50% to trade at $934.40/Oz when the JSE closed, while palladium had lost just over 0.20% to trade at $994.75/Oz.
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