JSE ends lower despite banks and financials defying global risk-off sentiment
The JSE closed lower on Thursday, as global risk-off trade dragged miners and rand hedges lower, while banking and financial stocks held up relatively well. The rand weakened to an intraday low of R11.94 to the dollar, for the first time in two weeks, pressured by the heightened perception that US interest rates could rise faster than projected this year. The market struggled to find direction earlier amid softer European markets and results from a number of big hitters on the local bourse. Anheuser-Busch InBev was the exception among the big shares, as the global beer giant rocketed more than 5% at one stage on better-than-expected annual results. Steinhoff was a major loser, falling more than 10% amid new revelations in the German media about alleged fraudulent activities by former CEO Markus Jooste, dating back to 2014. The JSE announced earlier that trading in the company’s preference shares had been suspended, after Steinhoff Investment Holdings failed to submit its annual repo...
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