Miners, banks weigh down JSE

Miners and banks pushed the JSE lower on Thursday as markets globally continued to focus on the latest moves by regulators in China and the prospects for tighter monetary policy in the US. The JSE all share slid 1.66% as precious metals dropped 4.69% and resources dropped 4.02%.

Miners and banks pushed the JSE lower on Thursday as markets globally continued to focus on the latest moves by regulators in China and the prospects for tighter monetary policy in the US.

Authorities in China have now turned their attention to casinos, with officials in the gambling hub of Macau announcing a review the industry is regulated, including the appointment of government representatives to “supervise” operators.

“Overall, the mood remains a little downbeat ... The stress factors facing the market have not materially changed, including the Delta variant and economic growth, fiscal and monetary tailwinds shifting to headwinds, and bubbling concerns around China,” said Oanda senior market analyst Craig Erlam.

“Next week we should learn a lot more about what the world’s most important central bank [the US Federal Reserve] thinks of recent [economic] developments and how it perceives the risks posed by inflation,” Erlam said. “It may not be surprising therefore if equities err on the side of caution between now and then as an undesirable response could trigger a nasty reaction.”

The JSE all share slumped 1.66% to 63,313.75 points and the top 40 shed 1.94%. Precious metals dropped 4.69%, resources 4.02%, industrial metals 3.79%, banks 2.7% and financials 2.28%.

Locally, FirstRand reported an impressive set of annual results, but said it is still struggling to shake off the damage wrought by Covid-19. The financial services group, whose units include FNB, Rand Merchant Bank and WesBank, said normalised earnings — a measure that removes the effects of one-off or seasonal items — came in at R26.55bn for the year ended June, up 54% on a year earlier.

The group’s share price fell 2.92% to R59.82 — its biggest one-day decline in two months.

At 6.33pm, the Dow Jones industrial average was 0.37% lower at 34,686.07 points. In Europe, the FTSE 100 closed 0.16% firmer, France’s CAC 40 added 0.59% and Germany’s DAX was up 0.23%

Earlier, the Shanghai Composite fell 1.34%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 1.5% lower and Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed down 0.62%.

At 5.10pm, the rand had weakened 1.31% to R14.5939/$, 0.82% to R17.1649/€ and 0.77% to R20.09368/£. The euro was 0.47% weaker at $1.1764. Gold fell 2.11% to $1,754.90/oz and platinum dropped 1.41% to $933.60. Brent crude lost 0.78% to $74.90 a barrel.