MIKE METELITS, Johannesburg | Thursday 11.00am.
INTERNATIONAL markets gave the JSE no cheer on Thursday as stock indices closed lower. The strong recovery in trade figures boosted bonds minutely and kept the rand in a tight trading range.
While the Nikkei gained only 79 points overnight, European markets were mixed. The FTSE-100 was up 22 points at 15:30 GMT, while Frankfurt’s DAX was down 68 at the same time.
All this sent weak signals to the local markets, which followed them by losing ground, but only slightly. The all share slipped 52 points to 5683, while industrials barely lost 5 to 6435.
Financials dumped 116 to finish at 8929, while negative sentiment hit the gold market hard driving the price of bullion down $1,60 to $293,65, and draining all gold of 44 points to 1032.
The trade surplus of R1,46-million, hard on the heels of last month’s R3-billion deficit, boosted bonds slightly, as foreign investors bought back the bonds they sold short yesterday. The benchmark R150 closed a single basis point higher at 16,08%.
Positive trade figures also kept the rand in a tight range all day, and without significant buying or selling blocks the local unit closed only 2 cents down at R5,7175 to the dollar.