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In our continued efforts to give our readers a broad number of views, opinions and information, we continue to provide PSG's daily market updates and add our own daily rant at the end.
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Short summary of PSG's market commentary for 26 February 2019
South Africa
The JSE failed to track positive sentiment on global markets on Monday, as a weaker rand and falling oil price weighed on local miners. The All Share was down by 0.20% at market close.
United States
Shares from technology and industrial companies pushed Wall Street’s main indexes to highs on Monday, after President Donald Trump said he would delay a planned hike in tariffs on Chinese imports. The Nasdaq closed 0.89% in the green.
Europe
Trump’s decision to delay an increase in tariffs on Chinese goods drove European shares to their highest since October as carmakers and mining companies rallied. At market close the FTSE 100 was flat, while the CAC 40 had risen 0.42% and the DAX 30 by 0.67%.
Hong Kong
The Shanghai Composite surged 5.60% yesterday afternoon after Trump said he would delay a planned tariff hike on Chinese imports.
Japan
Japan’s Nikkei rallied to a 10-week high on Monday after Trump confirmed he would delay a planned tariff increase on Chinese imports following “productive” trade talks over the weekend. The Nikkei ended the day up 0.48%.
Rand
News that the US is no longer considering slapping additional import tariffs on Chinese goods boosted the rand on Monday afternoon, which traded at R13.82/$ just after the JSE closed.
Precious metals
Gold gained on Monday as the dollar eased on optimism that the US and China are nearing a deal to end their trade war. An ounce of gold traded at $1 328.33 at 19h00.
Oil
Oil prices edged up on Monday as sanctions and political uncertainty tightened supply in several producer countries. At 19h00 a barrel of Brent crude traded at $65.00 a barrel.
The JSE failed to track positive sentiment on global markets on Monday, as a weaker rand and falling oil price weighed on local miners. The All Share was down by 0.20% at market close.
United States
Shares from technology and industrial companies pushed Wall Street’s main indexes to highs on Monday, after President Donald Trump said he would delay a planned hike in tariffs on Chinese imports. The Nasdaq closed 0.89% in the green.
Europe
Trump’s decision to delay an increase in tariffs on Chinese goods drove European shares to their highest since October as carmakers and mining companies rallied. At market close the FTSE 100 was flat, while the CAC 40 had risen 0.42% and the DAX 30 by 0.67%.
Hong Kong
The Shanghai Composite surged 5.60% yesterday afternoon after Trump said he would delay a planned tariff hike on Chinese imports.
Japan
Japan’s Nikkei rallied to a 10-week high on Monday after Trump confirmed he would delay a planned tariff increase on Chinese imports following “productive” trade talks over the weekend. The Nikkei ended the day up 0.48%.
Rand
News that the US is no longer considering slapping additional import tariffs on Chinese goods boosted the rand on Monday afternoon, which traded at R13.82/$ just after the JSE closed.
Precious metals
Gold gained on Monday as the dollar eased on optimism that the US and China are nearing a deal to end their trade war. An ounce of gold traded at $1 328.33 at 19h00.
Oil
Oil prices edged up on Monday as sanctions and political uncertainty tightened supply in several producer countries. At 19h00 a barrel of Brent crude traded at $65.00 a barrel.
Our daily rant..
Yesterday saw listed petrochemicals giant, SASOL release financial results, and while they continue to struggle with delays at the Lake Charles Chemicals Project in the USA, their net profit and profit per share surged over 100% compared to the previous year. Profits driven mainly by a higher oil price than the previous year. However President Trump'a twitter attack on OPEC saw oil prices decline yesterday.
SASOL themselves said the following regarding their expectations of their operational performance and the oil price up to June 2019:
The current economic climate continues to remain highly volatile and uncertain. While oil price and foreign exchange movements are outside our control and may impact our results, our focus remains firmly on managing factors within our control, including volume growth, cost optimisation, effective capital allocation, focused financial risk management and maintaining an investment grade credit rating. We expect an overall improved operational performance for the year ending 30 June 2019, with:
- Average Brent crude oil prices to remain between US$60/bbl and US$65/bbl.
See more regarding SASOL's financial results release yesterday here
SASOL themselves said the following regarding their expectations of their operational performance and the oil price up to June 2019:
The current economic climate continues to remain highly volatile and uncertain. While oil price and foreign exchange movements are outside our control and may impact our results, our focus remains firmly on managing factors within our control, including volume growth, cost optimisation, effective capital allocation, focused financial risk management and maintaining an investment grade credit rating. We expect an overall improved operational performance for the year ending 30 June 2019, with:
- Average Brent crude oil prices to remain between US$60/bbl and US$65/bbl.
See more regarding SASOL's financial results release yesterday here
Our JSE All Share index daily performance calendar
Visit our JSE Calendar tracker page for a expanded version of the calendar below
The graphic below provides the daily returns of the JSE All Share Index (J203) on a calendar chart. Provides a great overview of the All share index over the course of the month. It will be updated daily with our daily investment update as received from PSG.
The first trading day of February ended in the red. In contrast to January in which every Friday ended the day in the green, so far for February 2019 every Friday has ended in the red. So far the market has increased by 3.2% during the 25 days of February 2019. While the markets started the month of relatively directionless, it has increased pretty nicely over the last two weeks, as a possible deal between the USA and China on trade seems to becoming more likely, easing fears and jitters in the markets and therefore "risk on" assets such as South African shares are finding favour with investors, both local and international. For the month to date the market has seen a pretty strong increase of 3.2% (if this growth was to continue for the full year the market would be returning well over 30% for the year. We cannot see that happening though.