The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) was flat just before noon on Friday after a lacklustre morning.
Dealers said that the market was characterised by lack of interest and that after the JSE’s sharp fall on Thursday following the bomb blasts in Istanbul, people were taking to the sidelines.
At 11.50am, the all-share index was up a marginal 0,12%. Financials and resources were 0,27% and 0,17% firmer respectively, while the platinum mining index inched up 0,13%. The banks index was 0,75% better. The all-share industrial index was flattish (-0,06%), while the gold mining index surrendered 1,23%.
The rand was trading at R6,55 to the dollar, little changed from when the JSE closed on Thursday. Gold was quoted at $393,63/oz from $394,85/oz at the JSE’s last close.
“There is not much cooking — the market is neither here nor there,” a dealer said. “People are staying away after yesterday. The gold price has eased to where it was prior to the bomb blasts and the rand remains firm. There is limited interest in the market,” a dealer commented.
The JSE tumbled late on Thursday morning after terrorist bombs in Istanbul, Turkey, claimed 27 lives and injured up to 450. Blasts hit the HSBC bank headquarters and the British consulate. The market was further spooked in the afternoon when the White House was evacuated after a false radar reading mistakenly showed that a plane flew within 8km of restricted airspace around the complex.
Shares to climb in morning trade on Friday included London-listed diversified resources group Anglo American, which added R1,18 to R135,50. BHP Billiton was 20 cents better at R48,40 and Swiss- listed luxury goods group Richemont climbed nine cents to R15,09.
Packaging group Nampak bounced 1,95% or 25 cents to R13,05.
Nampak was down 3% on Thursday after it reported that headline earnings per share (Heps) for the year to September increased by just more than 3% from 140,9 cents to 145,4 cents. The group was expected to report Heps of 156 cents according to an I-Net Bridge consensus forecast.
On the JSE’s downside, AngloGold slipped 1% or three rand to R296, Gold Fields weakened 1,65% or R1,46 to R86,85 and Harmony was one rand lower at R101.
London-listed beverages group SABMiller shed 1,76% or R1,10 to R61,30.
On Thursday, SABMiller was up marginally after it reported a rise in headline earnings per share for the six-months to the end of September 2003 to 34,7 US cents from 26,7 US cents a year earlier. It declared an interim dividend of 7,5 US cents per share, up from 6,5 US cents in 2002.
London-listed financial services group Old Mutual was five cents in the red at R10,60, and Liberty Group lost 1,97% or one rand to R49,75. — I-Net Bridge