The JSE took a knock on Monday as equities slid on the back of the current sell-off in global equities.
Fears of a US Fed rate hike and surging bond yields have sent fears among equity market bulls and as a result a massive sell-off has ensued since Thursday. US 10-year Treasury bond yields climbed to 2.88% on Monday before easing slightly to 2.85% when the JSE closed.
On the JSE, all the constituents of the Top-40 Index were trading in the red. The biggest losses were recorded in property stocks such as Fortress B [JSE:FFB] and NEPI Rockcastle [JSE:NRP] which lost 6.40% and 5.55% respectively. Steinhoff International [JSE:SNH] lost 6.53% to close at R6.15 per share, whilst index heavyweight Naspers [JSE:NPN] lost 3.88% to close at R3120.00 per share. Mr Price [JSE:MRP] tried to gain some small momentum just after the open but that quickly fizzled out as the stock closed the day 0.98% weaker.
There were a few bright sparks on the broader JSE All-Share Index were stocks such as Ascendis Health [JSE:ASC], Consolidated Infrastructure [JSE:CIL] and PPC Limited [JSE:PPC] recorded gains of 11.90%, 11.11% and 2.66% respectively. Nonetheless the momentum was still skewed to the downside and stocks such as Pan African Resources [JSE:PAN], Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS] and EOH Holdings [JSE:EOH] lost 9.77%, 6.82% and 5.17% respectively.
The JSE All-Share Index lost 2.72% whilst the blue-chip Top-40 Index lost 2.83%. The industrials Index took the biggest hit to end the day down 3.10%, whilst the Resources Index and Financials Index lost 1.64% and 2.67% respectively.
The Rand opened softer but it managed to make small gains during the day to peak at R11.98/$. The Rand was trading at R12.06 against the greenback at 5pm. The US dollar also strengthened during the course of the day which saw the US dollar index peak at 89.61 index points.
Metal commodities opened slightly weaker on Monday but Gold and Platinum rebounded to record modest gains by the time the JSE closed. Gold peaked at $1338.63/Oz before retracing slightly to trade at $1333.80/Oz just after the JSE closed. Platinum slid to $986.66/Oz before rebounding to trade at 992.70/Oz just after the JSE close. Palladium took the biggest knock on Monday as it shed more than 2% to reach a low $1032.95/Oz, however it recovered marginally to trade at $1035.68/Oz just after the JSE closed.
Brent Crude traded softer to reach a low $67.51/barrel before retracing slightly to trade at $67.79/barrel at 5pm.
US equity markets opened weaker on Monday. At 5pm, the Dow Jones Industrial Index was down by 0.78%, S&P500 was down by 0.74% & the Nasdaq was 0.30% softer.