JSE faces weaker Asian markets on Friday as investors eye Chinese tech crackdown

The JSE faces mostly weaker Asian markets on Friday morning, with sentiment under pressure from concerns of further regulatory moves from China against tech firms with foreign operations.

Bloomberg has reported that China regulators are considering severe sanctions on ride-hailing group Didi Global over its US listing, with regulators having already ordered a removal of the group from app stores, citing security concerns around data.

Global markets have been recovering this week from a sharp sell-off on Monday, sparked by concerns that the Delta variant of the coronavirus will delay economic recovery.

After losing 2.6% on Monday, the JSE has gained more than 1% for the past three consecutive sessions, with US markets also rising for the past three days.

“For now, markets seem unconcerned about either Delta or inflation, keeping the buy-everything music playing,” said Oanda senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley in a note.

In morning trade on Friday the Hang Seng was down 0.99% and the Shanghai Composite was down 0.65%.

Tencent, which influences the JSE via the Naspers stable, had fallen 0.74%.

Gold was 0.16% lower at $1,802.40/oz while platinum was down 0.17% to $1,092.17/oz. Brent crude had given up 0.12% to $73.51 a barrel.

The rand was flat at R14.71/$ but weakened 1% on Thursday when the Reserve Bank warned that the civil unrest and violence last week has prevented it from bumping up its expectations for SA’s economic recovery. The Bank has kept its 2021 GDP growth forecast unchanged at 4.2%, but has revised its inflation expectation for the year to 4.3%, from 4.2% previously.

The local corporate and economic calendar is bare on Friday

gernetzkyk@businesslive.co.za