The JSE was lifted on Monday as global markets responded positively to Friday’s upbeat US jobs report.
US major indices gained over 1% on Friday and this trend filtered onto Asian indices in Monday’s trading session. Global markets strengthened despite concerns of a potential trade war between the USA and its biggest trading partners. However the jobs report from the USA exceeded market estimates which reduced the potential impact stemming from the news of US tariffs.
The JSE opened firmer and continued to gain during the course of today’s trading session. Stadio Holdings [JSE:SDO] jumped 17.86% to close at R4.62 per share, whilst its sector peer, Curro Holdings [JSE:CUR] closed at R31.04 per share after gaining 5.26%. Lonmin [JSE:LON] added 2.67% to close at R7.70 per share, whilst fellow platinum miner, Impala Platinum [JSE:IMP] inched up 0.05% to close at R20.41 per share.
On the Top-40 index, Sanlam [JSE:SLM] and Rand Merchant Investment Holdings [JSE:RMH] added 4.08% and 3.77% respectively. Bankers such as FirstRand [JSE:FSR] added 3.43% to close at R77.00 per share, Capitec Holdings [JSE:CPI] climbed 3.35% to end the day at R927.50 per share, whilst Standard Bank [JSE:SBK] closed at R216.63 per share after gaining 2.63%. Other significant moves on the day were recorded in Naspers [JSE:NPN] and Aspen [JSE:APN] which gained 2.18% and 2.6% respectively.
Of the day’s biggest losers, Datatec [JSE:DTC] traded under significant pressure eventually closing at R20.30 per share after losing 7.26%. Steinhoff [JSE:SNH] reached a new all-time low of R1.07 per share which is where it closed after losing 6.96%. On the blue-chip index, Life Healthcare [JSE:LHC] and Mediclinic [JSE:MEI] lost 1.63% and 2.46% respectively, whilst British American Tobacco [JSE:BTI] was weighed down by the stronger Rand which saw the stock close 1.38% weaker at R644.41 per share.
The JSE Top-40 index closed 1.04% firmer whilst the broader JSE All-Share index managed to climb by 1.03%. The Resources index traded softer to end the day 0.47% weaker, however the Industrials and Financials indices posted gains of 1.27% and 2.04% respectively.
The Rand gained more than 1% against the greenback to reach a session high of R12.51/$. This was mainly as a result of the retracement in the US dollar which slipped below 94 index points on the US dollar index. The Rand was trading at R12.56/$ at 17.00 CAT, up 0.95% on the day.
Gold was little changed as it recorded marginal gains to peak at a session high of $1298.14/Oz. At 17.00 CAT the precious metal was trading at $1294.91/Oz, only up 0.2% on the day. Platinum and Palladium also recorded minimal gains to trade at $904.65/Oz and $1005.75/Oz respectively.
Brent crude slid by more than 1% to reach a session low of $75.53/barrel. Just after the JSE close the commodity was still trading under pressure at $75.92/barrel.
At 17.00 CAT Ethereum had lost 5.33% to trade at $586.90/coin, whilst Bitcoin was 2.79% weaker to trade at $7494.70/coin.