Unum Market Commentary: JSE Struggles For Direction As Rand Weig

On Wednesday, a weaker South African Rand weighed on local shares, holding the index back from a further advance. On the day, the All Share closed higher by 0.21% but really struggled to find a real direction as financial shares closed lower by 1.14% while other domestic names such as Shoprite, Bidvest and Vodacom declined by 4.23%, 2.14% and 2.03% respectively. On the upside, BHP Billiton closed at the highest level since August 2014, while Nepi Rockcastle, British American Tobacco and Glencore helped the index to remain in positive territory. In Europe, indices were mostly higher while the UK's FTSE100 saw a decline of 0.71%. In the United States, indices closed in positive territory as the S&P 500 held onto the 2900 level while the Nasdaq closed at another all-time high.

JSE Major Sectors

Resources 10 +1.59%
Industrial 25 +0.17%
Financial 15 -1.14%

________________________________________
Join the Unum Trading Desk on Friday 7 Sep 2018 starting at 14:15 as we look to trade the EURUSD Forex pair on the NFP data. t.me/NFP7SEP2018


________________________________________
In currencies, the South African Rand trades as follows:

USDZAR +0.36% to 14.41
GBPZAR +0.35% to 18.77
EURZAR -0.32% to 16.86

Gold trades at $1210
Platinum at $794
Brent Crude Oil at $77.62

International Markets

This morning, Asian equities are as follows:

Nikkei 225 (+0.16%)
Hang Seng (-0.73%)
Shanghai Composite (-0.81%)

Latam Markets closed as follows:

Merval 25 (+1.46%)
Bovespa (+1.18%)
INMEX (+0.39%)
________________________________________
Company News

Murray and Roberts Holdings - Audited annual provisional results for the 12 months ended 30 June 2018

Salient features
- R21,8 billion Revenue from continuing operations, increased by 2% (FY2017: R21,4 billion)
- R267 million Attributable earnings increased by 456% (FY2017: R48 million)
- 50 cents Gross annual dividend increased by 11% to 50 cents per ordinary share (FY2017: 45 cents)
- 112 cents Diluted continuing HEPS, increased by 56% (FY2017: 72 cents)
- R2 billion Cash, net of debt, increased by 11% (30 June 2017: R1,8 billion)
- R30,1 billion Order book for continuing operations increased by 12%(30 June 2017: R26,9 billion)
________________________________________
Aus miners:
BHP Billiton (-0.08%)
Rio Tinto (-0.44%)
S32 (+0.98%)

FANGs
Facebook (-0.20%)
Amazon (+3.38%)
Netflix (-0.12%)
Google (-1.51%)

FTSE Miners:
Anglo American plc (-1.83%)
BHP Billiton plc (-0.70%)
Glencore plc (-0.78%)

Alibaba Holdings (+0.17%)
Tencent Holdings (-1.11%)

Share Link: bit.ly/JoinUnum

For any trading related queries or advice, please contact the Unum Trading desk: 011 384 2929

________________________________________
The Unum Capital Trading Desk