JSE on a rollercoaster after Trump win

The JSE struggled to come to terms with the implications of a Donald Trump presidential win on Wednesday, with wild swings between black and red in early morning trade.

The FTSE/JSE All Share Index (Alsi) was sharply down in early morning trade, but regained some ground as gold and resource stocks benefited and was trading 0.3% higher at 50 867.94 points at 11:03.

The Top40 index was up 0.4%.

The rand was under pressure trading 1.7% weaker at R13.51 to the dollar, and also lost ground to the euro and pound trading at R15.01 and R16.76 respectively.

Drikus Combrinck, CEO at Capicraft Investment Partners, says the market is reacting as expected with emerging market currencies taking a beating.

The protectionist policies Trump has championed during his campaign suggest that a country like Mexico will come under fire. The Mexican peso collapsed against the US dollar.

Combrinck says although “safe haven” has become a relative term, safe haven currencies like the euro, Swiss franc, pound and even the yen gained ground against the dollar.

Precious metals like gold, silver and platinum also performed well, translating into gains for South African gold and platinum miners.

The gold index was up 6.2% at 11:02 while resources gained 3.5%.

Financial and industrial shares were on the back foot, with these indices down 0.5% and 0.6% respectively.

Diversified miners BHP Billiton surged 5.4% to R217.20 on the JSE while Anglo American was up 3.5% at R195.12.

Harmony Gold rose 8.9%, DRDGold 9.8% and Sibanye rose 7.8%.

Naspers shed 1.3% and traded at R2 180.80. FirstRand and Standard Bank lost 1.4% and 0.6% respectively.

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