The JSE closed in positive territory for the first time in this week’s trading session as the local bourse was buoyed by diversified miners.
Anglo American PLC was one of the top movers in today’s session as the stock managed to close the day up 2.60%. PPC Ltd continued with its impressive run as the stock jumped 10.72%, whilst Kumba Iron Ore gained 3.20% due to firmer iron ore prices. Capitec broke above R900 per share for the first time today as it reached an all- time high of R900.94 per share. The stock did retrace slightly but it still managed to close up 1.52% at R900.50 per share.
Steinhoff released a trading update for the 9 months ended June 2017. The update indicated that group sales increased by 48% for the reported period compared to the same period last year. The group reported that organic revenue has increased by 8%. The stock closed 2.65% firmer at R61.24 per share.
Banking stocks traded under pressure yet again despite the Rand being relatively firm against the greenback. Nedbank, Barclays Africa and First Rand all traded under pressure to close the day down 0.77%, 0.31% and 0.25% respectively. Mr Price and Woolworths also came under pressure to close the day down 0.55% and 0.27% respectively.
The blue chip Top-40 Index led the major indices to close up 0.65%, whilst the JSE All-Share Index closed up 0.63%. The other major indices also closed in positive territory, which saw the Industrials Index gaining 0.58% whilst the Financials Index gained 0.23%. The Resources Index jumped up 1.18% on the back of firmer metal commodity prices which pushed JSE listed miners higher.
Brent Crude managed to bounce in today’s session following a couple of sessions of weak trading. The commodity broke above $52 per barrel which helped JSE listed oil and gas producer Sasol inch up 1.91%. The commodity was trading at $51.99 per barrel just after the JSE closed.
Metals managed to bounce today after the slide that we saw yesterday. Gold opened weaker but managed to track higher during the course of the day to reach an intra-day high of $1317.69 per ounce. Harmony Gold managed to gain 1.29% whilst Gold Fields inched up 0.43%. The precious metal was trading at $1317.10 per ounce just after the JSE closed.
Platinum traded mostly flat for the day as it failed to make a clear trend. The metal managed to turn into positive territory as it reached an intra-day high of $994.95 per ounce. Platinum was trading at $993.67 per ounce when the JSE closed.
Palladium followed a similar trend to Platinum as it rebounded on the back of a bullish reversal in commodities. The commodity was trading at $934.21 per ounce just after the JSE closed, this was after peaking to an intra-day high of $940.86 per ounce.