(iStock)
Agility is the watchword as trade tensions jolt emerging markets
Rand weakens on renewed China/US trade war fears
Markets WRAP: Rand closes at R14.89/$
US stocks join global selloff after latest Trump tariffs
The difference between SA multi-asset income funds and money market
Hong Kong stocks slump at close
Global stocks including those on the JSE plummeted on Monday
as the Chinese currency fell to a three-year low against the greenback.
Speculation remains rife that this is a counter measure to
the additional tariffs that were imposed by Donald Trump on $300bn worth of
Chinese imports. Emerging market currencies and stocks sank on the back of this
development, while Treasury bond yields rose as investors fled to safe-haven
assets.
Earlier in Asian markets trading, the Hang Seng took a heavy
knock as it fell 2.85% while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.91%. In Japan
the Nikkei fell 1.74%. Most of the major indices in Europe weakened by more
than 1.5% on the day while significant losses were also recorded at the open of
US equity markets.
Subscribe to Fin24’s newsletter here
The rand had another weak trading session as it narrowly
came within breach of R15/$ as it peaked at a session high of R14.95/$. The
local currency rebounded marginally before it was recorded trading 0.85% weaker
at R14.90/$ at 17:00.
READ: Rand weakens on renewed China/US trade war fears
Intu Properties [JSE:ITU] which took a nose-dive last week
on the back of weaker earnings, started this trading week on the backfoot as it
fell 6.79% to end the day at R7.14. Index heavyweight Naspers [JSE:NPN] also
came under significant pressure after its Hang Seng listed Tencent Holdings closed
4.27% lower on Monday. This resulted in Naspers falling 4.58% to end the day at
R3350.00.
Aspen Pharmacare [JSE:APN] lost further ground as it slipped
5.41% to close at R84.08, while KAP Industrial Holdings [JSE:KAP] lost 6.35% to
end the day at R4.72. Diversified mining giant Anglo American [JSE:AGL] fell 2.24% to close at R329.79,
while its sector peer BHP Group [JSE:BHP] lost 1.37% to close at R325.85.
Other blue-chip stocks which recorded significant losses on
the day included Richemont [JSE:CFR] which dropped 4.55% to close at R117.56,
Discovery [JSE:DSY] which fell 4.16% to close at R127.00, and British American
Tobacco [JSE:BTI] which closed at R541.46 after falling 3.22%.
Gains were primarily capped to a handful of gold and
platinum miners primarily due to higher metal commodity prices. Gold Fields
[JSE:GFI] rose 8.14% to close at R85.55, Harmony Gold [JSE:HAR] surged 6.4% to
close at R41.37, while AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] closed at R299.01 after
gaining 5.85%.
Platinum miner Impala Platinum [JSE:IMP] added 0.99% to end
the day at R75.27, while Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS] climbed 2.57% to
close at R807.74. Brait [JSE:BAT] had a minor reprieve which saw the stock
advance 4.09% to close at R13.75.
At 17:00, palladium was up 1.24% to trade at $1427.45/Oz, platinum
had rose 1.23% to trade at $855.00/Oz, and gold was 1.76% higher at $1466.39/Oz.
With the demand outlook looking shaky due to the Sino-US
trade war, brent crude slipped further in today’s session. It was recorded
trading 2.26% weaker at $60.49/barrel just after the JSE close.
*Musa Makoni is a trading specialist at Purple Group
