{"id":437739,"date":"2020-10-02T10:22:39","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T08:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=437739"},"modified":"2020-10-02T10:22:39","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T08:22:39","slug":"south-africas-stocks-fall-as-trumps-positive-covid-19-test-spooks-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/437739\/south-africas-stocks-fall-as-trumps-positive-covid-19-test-spooks-markets\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa&#8217;s stocks fall as Trump\u2019s positive Covid-19 test spooks markets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa\u2019s main stock index fell as much as 1.2% after US President Donald Trump\u2019s announcement that he tested positive for Covid-19 roiled markets and drove global equities lower.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A wave of risk-off sentiment swept through global financial markets&#8221; after Trump\u2019s news, Han Tan, market analyst at FXTM, wrote in an emailed note.<\/p>\n<p>Heavyweights BHP Group Plc, Richemont, Anglo American Plc and Naspers Ltd. led the local index lower. Friday\u2019s decline trimmed the gauge\u2019s weekly gain to 1%, its first weekly advance in three.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Rand-hedge Richemont fell 2.2%, providing the main drag on the index. Naspers retreated 0.4%, while its subsidiary Prosus NV rose 0.5% to give the biggest boost to the gauge.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The index for resource stocks retreated 1.2% as diversified miners joined gold and platinum producers in retreating.\n<ul>\n<li>BHP -1.2%, Anglo American -0.8%, Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. -3.4%, Northam Platinum Ltd. -3.4%, Sibanye Stillwater Ltd. -2.2%, Anglo American Platinum Ltd. -2%, Harmony Gold Mining Co. -2.6%, AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. -1%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A weaker rand drove the index for bank stocks down for the first day in five, falling 2.3%.\n<ul>\n<li>Standard Bank Group Ltd. -3%, Capitec Bank Holdings Ltd. -2.5%, FirstRand Ltd. -1.7%, Nedbank Group Ltd. -3.6%, Absa Group Ltd. -2.4%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Sasol Ltd. fell 2.5% after the company agreed to sell a $2 billion stake in its U.S. base-chemicals business to LyondellBasell Industries NV to help pay down debt.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Nampak extended gains to a third day, rising as much as 73% to the highest since March 19. The company announced Wednesday that it had reduced gross debt by 21%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Foreigners turned net buyers of South African stocks on Thursday, ending a nine-day net outflow. Investors purchased R487 million worth of shares, according to exchange operator JSE Ltd.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/437617\/trump-tests-positive-for-covid-19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trump tests positive for Covid-19<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa\u2019s main stock index fell as much as 1.2% after US President Donald Trump\u2019s announcement that he tested positive for Covid-19 roiled markets and drove global equities lower.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":293562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-437739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437739"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437751,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437739\/revisions\/437751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}