Futures-related buying propelled the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) into the black on Thursday morning, with the market showing gains across the board in noon trade.
While stronger world markets also helped sentiment, volumes were extremely light, with less than half a billion rands’ worth of shares changing hands.
At 12.05pm, the all-share and all-share industrial indices were 0,96% and 0,71% stronger respectively. Resources rallied 1,37%, with the gold mining index gaining 1,32% and the platinum mining index jumping 1,4%.
Financials were 0,53% firmer, while the banks index was 0,20% better.
The rand was trading at R6,90 to the dollar from R6,91 when the JSE closed on Wednesday, while gold was quoted at $385,13 an ounce from $384,30/oz at the JSE’s last close.
“The market is looking a lot better but it is very quiet. There has been a technical bounce on futures buying. The market is being marked up on very small volumes,” a dealer said.
He explained that futures players needed to give the market direction in order to make money, adding that the JSE had been oversold in recent days.
“The performance of United States markets last night is also helping. If you take into account our performance over the past couple of days, we have hugely underperformed world markets.”
While the JSE was up on Monday, ending a seven-day losing streak, it fell sharply on Tuesday after the rand broke below R7 per dollar for the first time in three years and lost even more ground on Wednesday.
Shares to gain in morning trade included London-listed diversified resources group Anglo American, which advanced 1,99% or R2,50 to R128. BHP Billiton was up 40 cents at R46,20 and synthetic fuels group Sasol was 1,61% or R1,31 stronger at R82,56.
On the gold mining index, AngloGold added 1,56% or R4 to R261,20 and Harmony surged 2,61% or R2,49 to R98. Gold Fields climbed 65 cents to R95,75.
Impala Platinum leapt 2,05% or R12 to R597.
On the industrial market, Swiss-listed luxury goods group Richemont was up 1,56% or 21 cents to R13,66. Pulp and paper producer Sappi soared 2,54% or R2,24 to R90,50.
Cellular network operator MTN Group strengthened 1,27% or 25 cents to R20 and media group Naspers was up 1,98% or 55 cents at R28,30.
London-listed financial services group Old Mutual firmed 1,29% or 14 cents to R11,01.
Sanlam was 1,17% or nine cents stronger at R7,77.
Technology holding company VenFin was 1,19% or 20 cents in the black at R17.
Niche banking group Investec Plc improved 1,04% or 99 cents to R96,50.
On the JSE’s downside, banking group Nedcor shed 51 cents to R68,70.
Retailer Shoprite slumped 3,39% or 26 cents to R7,40. — I-Net Bridge