The JSE closed weaker in today’s session as local retail sales data disappointed.

Local retail sales numbers came in worse than expected as the year-on-year number was recorded 1.8% on the back of an estimate of 2.5%. Retail sales month-on-month decreased to -0.6% from a prior recording of 0.2%. Major retailers such as Woolworths and Truworths traded under pressure to close the day lower, as they lost 3.92% and 2.68% respectively. However it wasn’t all doom and gloom for the retailers as Mr Price and Shoprite ended the day in the green as they closed up 0.77% and 0.45% respectively.

Bidcorp and MTN were among the top movers today as they closed the day up 2.40% and 1.23% respectively. Richemont released a decent five month sales report this morning, the stock struggled to gain any significant momentum above R120 per share to eventually to close the day flat at R120.30 per share. AngloGold Ashanti lost most of its earlier momentum to close the day flat. The stock looked set to test R130 per share but it fell in the afternoon session to eventually the day down 0.02% at R126.79 per share.

The Rand weakened further today due to US Dollar strength as well as the weak South African retail sales numbers that were released this afternoon. The Rand dropped to an intra-day low of R13.17 against the greenback towards the close of the JSE, and it was trading at this level just after the JSE closed.

The JSE All-Share Index eventually closed down 0.34%, whilst the Top-40 Index was down by 0.33%. Most of the major indices on the JSE traded under pressure, which saw the Industrials Index closing down 0.22% whilst the Financials Index lost 0.47%. The Resources Index shed 0.75%.

Gold was looking positive in early morning trading but it lost significant ground during the course of today’s session to trade at $1322.80 per ounce when the JSE closed. The precious metal had managed to peak at $1337.18 per ounce in earlier trading. Metals such as Palladium and Platinum followed a similar trend as they traded under pressure for the most of the day. Palladium was trading at $942.10 per ounce just after the JSE closed, whilst Platinum was trading at $982.52 per ounce.

Brent Crude was mostly unchanged after the release of US Crude Oil Inventories numbers. US Inventories increased to 5.9 million barrels on the back of an estimate of 4.1 million barrels. Brent Crude was trading at $54.77 per barrel when the JSE closed.

 

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