Think Daily 14 October 2021

In Wednesday’s trading session in the local markets, the Top 40 closed the day up by 0.03%. The Resources 10 sector went down by 0.26%, the Financial 15 went down by 0.67%, the Industrial 25 went up by 0.51% and lastly the South African Listed Property index down by 0.38%. The Rand traded at R14.79 against the United State Dollar, R20.23 against the Great British pound, and R17.15 against the Euro. Rand posted strong gains on Wednesday as the dollar retreated, gold prices rallied and local bonds advanced. Precious metals miners were among the best performers of the day. Anglo American Platinum, AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields rose 3.34%, 3.16% and 2.81%, respectively. In the corporate space, Tshabalala (CEO of Standard Bank) sells R9.4m in Standard Bank shares. PSG released its interim results. HEPS amounted to R18,04 (2020: loss of R14,14). Life Healthcare revenue up by more than 11%. The Italian oil and gas group Eni SpA is pulling out of plans to explore for oil with Sasol. 


 

Figure 1: Standard Bank 5 day share price 

On the commodities front, the Brent Crude oil is trading at $83.86 a barrel and WTI Crude oil traded at $81.06 a barrel. Gold Spot price is currently trading at $1794.65, Platinum Spot is now trading at $1027.50 and lastly, Palladium Spot price is at $2131.00. Gold prices eased off a one-month high on Thursday as better-than-expected U.S. consumer price data raised bets the Federal Reserve would tighten its policy earlier than anticipated. Oil rose after American Petroleum Institute data showed Cushing crude oil inventories fell 2.3 million barrels in the latest week. 

Across the globe, the S&P 500 closed the day up 0.30%, Dow Jones closed down 0.00% and the Nasdaq had a 0.77% up. The FTSE 100 closed up 0.16% and the DAX was up 0.68% and CAC40 was up 0.75%. In the Asian markets, the Nikkei 225 is down 2.31% and the Hang Seng is currently down 0.36%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended higher on Wednesday, led by gains in shares like Amazon.com and Microsoft. Japanese stocks were higher, led by gains in electronics stocks. Chinese stocks were mixed in early trade, with losses led by coal producers and the utilities sector and airline stocks gaining. 

Things to look out for today in the trading day: US Continuing Jobless Claims at 14.30 pm, US Initial Jobless Claims at 14.30 pm, US PPI (YoY) (Sep) at 14.30 pm, US Crude Oil Inventories at 17.00 pm and US Gasoline Production at 17.00 pm