The JSE was weaker on Thursday morning, while its global peers were mixed with the local focus on the state of the nation address (Sona) by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa will deliver the last Sona of his first term of office later on Thursday. Among other things, markets are hoping that Ramaphosa will announce the date for the upcoming general election, as well as solutions for state-owned entities.
“Its widely expected that President Ramaphosa will touch on the past years’ events, yet investors will be keeping a close eye on what solutions are being put forward to fix the beleaguered SOEs,” RMB head of forex execution Matete Thulare said.
“[These are] Eskom the power utility, and Transnet, which has suffered several setbacks with the ports and rail infrastructure, which is hampering growth in the economy.”
At 10.35am, the JSE all share had lost 0.53% to 73,919 points and the top 40 was down 0.62%. Industrial metals had gained 0.25%.
Precious metals had lost 2.85%, resources 0.96%, retailers 0.63%, industrials 0.52%, SA listed property 0.22%, banks 0.18%, financials 0.16% and food producers 0.15%.
At the same time in Europe, France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX were unchanged.
Earlier in Asia, the Shanghai Composite had added 1.28% and Japan’s Nikkei 2.06%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.27%.
Globally, investors are digesting interest-rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve being pushed back as the US economy remains stronger than expected.
On Wednesday evening, several Fed officials said that they did not see an urgent need for lowering interest rates just yet, “echoing sentiments from other officials that a rate cut isn’t likely until at least May,” Thulare said.
Investors will also monitor new unemployment claims data later on Thursday, to gauge the health of the labour market.
At 10.29am, the rand had weakened 0.34% to R18.9634/$, 0.36% to R20.4329/€ and 0.46% to R23.9451/£. The euro was little changed at $1.0775.
Gold lost 0.17% to $2,031.15/oz, while platinum was little changed at $880.80/oz. Brent crude was unchanged at $79.28 a barrel.
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