Most indices on the JSE fell on Tuesday, with industrials spared the most of the carnage, as the market waited to see whether the US would withdraw from its nuclear deal with Iran.
Currency markets, once again, gave the JSE its direction with a weaker rand hurting banking and financial stocks, while a stronger dollar weighed on miners.
The local bourse spent the day lower, extending losses as US markets opened. US President Donald Trump is expected to announce his decision on Iran at 8pm local time. A withdrawal from the agreement, which is expected by many analysts, is set to put further pressure on the oil price.
On Tuesday, Brent crude hovered below $76 a barrel, but any re-imposition of sanctions by the US could prompt global oil supply shortages, analysts said. The expectation of rising inflation in the US has recently buoyed the dollar, as markets gauge the prospect of faster monetary policy normalisation.
While the risk for further rand weakness was clear, interest-rate differentials between emerging markets and developed countries remained attractive, said Investec economist Annabel Bishop. Emerging-market currencies could find support if the recent dollar strength was interrupted, while concern over the US’s twin deficits was also likely to resurface.
The all share closed 0.37% lower at 57,665.20 points and the top 40 dropped 0.29%. General retailers fell 2.72%, the platinum index 2.37%, food and drug retailers 1.39%, banks 1.07%, and the gold index 0.99%.
Kumba Iron Ore slid 4.42% to R270.
Impala Platinum plummeted 7.56% to R19.80, after it reported refined platinum production decreased by 4.5% in its fiscal third quarter due to a technical problem with one of its furnaces.
Massmart lost 3.06% to R153.18.
Naspers rose 1.3% to R3,074.49, tracking gains in Tencent, and amid further reports of the imminent sale of Flipkart to Walmart. Naspers is Flipkart’s third largest shareholder.
Rebosis Property Fund gained 3.13% to R8.25, after earlier reporting net property income growth of 6.8% for the six months to end-February.
At 5.40pm, the Dow was flat at 24,4370.70 points, while in Europe, the DAX 30 had lost 0.23%, the CAC 40 0.19% and the FTSE 100 0.07%.
At the same time, gold had fallen 0.48% to $1,307.74 an ounce and platinum 0.11% to $908.72. Brent crude had slumped 2.2% to $73.80.
The top 40 Alsi futures index fell 0.8% to 51,210 points. The number of contracts traded was 34,063 from Monday’s 10,940.
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