The JSE tracked the trend in Asian markets trading earlier as it closed softer on Monday.

Sentiment was mostly bearish on the local bourse with losses being recorded across all the major indices. The weaker rand also saw rand sensitives retreat on the day with the financials index struggling the most amongst the majors.

The greenback strengthened against a basket of major currencies which saw it peak as high as 99.46 index points on the US dollar index. Resultantly, emerging market currencies including the rand retreated on the day. The rand fell to a session low of R15.22/$ before it recouped marginally to trade at 0.1% softer at R15.16/$ at 17.00 CAT.

Significant losses were recorded for pharma giant Aspen Pharmacare [JSE:APN] which lost 4.5% to close at R85.95, while pressure continues to mount on oil and gas producer Sasol [JSE:SOL] which fell 4.52% to close at R253.96. Bankers struggled on the day with losses being recorded for Nedbank [JSE:NED] which lost 2.23% to close at R226.82, and ABSA Group [JSE:ABG] which retreated 3.55% to end the day at R152.87. Gold miners such traded softer with losses being recorded for Harmony Gold [JSE:HAR] which lost 3.28% to close at R43.30, and Gold Fields [JSE:GFI] which closed at R76.12 after losing 2.16%. Other significant losers on the day included Truworths [JSE:TRU] which lost 2.21% to close at R53.00, Imperial Logistics [JSE:IPL] which fell 3.37% to close at R52.17, and Coronation Fund Managers [JSE:CML] which weakened by 2.23% to close at R41.69.

Trustco Group Holdings [JSE:TTO] closed amongst the day’s biggest gainers following the announcement of its share repurchase program. The stock surged 13.04% to close at R10.40. Afrimat Ltd [JSE:AFT] was bolstered by the release of a positive further trading update for the period ending 31 August 2019 which resulted in the stock surging 8.77% to close at R33.49. Rand hedge Sappi [JSE:SAP] managed to record gains of 3.47% as it closed at R37.55, while British American Tobacco [JSE:BTI] added 3% to close at R562.22. Mondi PLC [JSE:MNP] added 1.65% to close at R290.45, while AB InBev [JSE:ANH] managed to gain 0.99% to close at R1444.03.

The JSE Top-40 index eventually closed 0.7% lower while the broader JSE All-Share index lost 0.69%. The biggest casualty of the day was the Financials index which lost 1.41%, while the Industrials and Resources indices lost 0.5% and 0.42% respectively.

Brent crude fell as supply fears subsided following news that Saudi Arabia was not considering war against Iran over the oil pipeline attack. The commodity was trading 0.57% lower at $60.69/barrel just after the JSE close.

At 17.00 CAT, Gold was down 1.1% at $1480.46/Oz, Platinum had tumbled 3.93% to trade at $894.10/Oz, and Palladium had lost 1.18% to trade at $1665.95/Oz.

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