In Friday’s trading session in the local markets, the Top 40 closed the day down by 2.58%. The Resources 10 sector went down by 2.53%, the Financial 15 went down by 6.75%, the Industrial 25 went down by 1.30% and lastly the South African Listed Property index down by 4.29%. The Rand traded at R16.12 against the United State Dollar, R21.50 against the Great British pound, and R18.19 against the Euro. Rand sank to its lowest since October 2020 on Friday and stocks shed more than 2% after the
discovery in the country of a COVID-19 variant.
Figure 1: Financial 15 (J211) 5-day share price movement
JSE Financial 15 Index dipped 6.75% on Friday instigated by the discovery in the country of a COVID-19 variant.
On the commodities front, the Brent Crude oil is trading at $74.50 a barrel and WTI Crude oil is traded at $71.41 a barrel. Gold Spot price is currently trading at $1797.50, Platinum Spot is now trading at $950.50 and lastly, Palladium Spot price is at $1781.20. Gold prices edged higher on Monday, as concerns over the impact of the Omicron coronavirus variant offset a stronger dollar and supported the precious metal’s safe-haven appeal. Oil prices plunged more than 10% on Friday (biggest one day drop since April 2020) as the new variant spooked investors across financial markets.
Across the globe, the S&P 500 closed the day down 2.27%, Dow Jones closed down 2.53% and the Nasdaq had a 2.09% down. The FTSE 100 closed down 3.64% and the DAX was down 4.15% and CAC40 was down 4.75%. In the Asian markets, the Nikkei 225 is down 1.58% and the Hang Seng is currently up 0.56%. U.S. stocks closed lower on Friday, with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 suffering their biggest one-day percentage drops in months, and pandemic-hit sectors that had gained from a reopening falling sharply after a new coronavirus mutation was found.
Things to look out for today in the trading day: Eurozone Consumer Inflation Expectation (Nov) at noon, German CPI (MoM/YoY) (Nov) at 3.00 pm.
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