The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) was in positive territory in noon trade on Thursday, bucking the weaker trend on world markets. Dealers said that banking and gold stocks were driving the bourse higher.
At 11h53, the all share index was up 0,24%. The financial and banks indices were 0,73% and 1,28% firmer respectively. The gold mining index gained 0,64%.
The all share industrial (+0,06%), resources (+0,09%) and platinum mining (-0,01%) indices were all flat.
The rand was quoted at 6,65 per dollar, little changed from when the JSE closed on Wednesday, while gold was quoted at $399.20 an ounce from $398,13/oz at the JSE’s last close. Gold traded above $401/oz earlier on Thursday morning.
“Gold stocks are leading the gainers, with the gold price jumping back above $400/oz and the currency not strengthening much,” a dealer said. She noted that the rest of the major mining stocks were doing nothing.
“We have also seen good demand for banks again, especially Nedcor in which a big book-over trade went through. There might be renewed rumours that one of the banks is a takeover target,” she continued.
While such rumours drove banks to record highs last week, they seemed to run out of steam earlier this week after comments by South African Reserve bank governor Tito Mboweni that government would prefer the major bank’s to remain in local hands.
Standard Bank nevertheless strengthened to a lifetime high of R47 on Thursday morning. It was last quoted 1,06% or 49 cents in the black at R46,50. FirstRand surged 1,74% or 19 cents to R11,10, Absa added 1,43% or 81 cents to R57,31 and Nedcor climbed 16 cents to R59,01.
Financial services group Sanlam soared 2,07% or 20 cents to R9,85 and microlender Abil rocketed 5,96% or 72 cents to R12,80.
Gold miner Gold Fields gained 61 cents to R76,11, AngloGold Ashanti added two rand to R233 and Harmony inched up 20 cents to R76,50.
Strong performers on the industrial market included services group Bidvest, which jumped 1% or 60 cents to R60,75. Its intraday high of R60,99 was its strongest since January 2000.
Electronics group Reunert rose 2,21% or 60 cents to a best ever R22,80.
Retailers again put in a strong showing, with Edcon rallying 2,23% or R3,99 to R182,99. It touched a fresh lifetime high of R184 in early trade.
Truworths leaped 3,02% or 35 cents to R11,95 after trading at a lifetime high of R12.
Massmart traded a highest ever R38,20 on Thursday morning and was last quoted 35 cents in the black at R37,85. JD group jumped 1,79% or 85 cents to R48,40 and Foschini leaped 2,9% or 75 cents to R26,60.
JD Group’s intraday high of R48,50 was its best since September 2000, while Foschini touched its best level since February 1996 when it traded at R26,90.
On the JSE’s downside, London-listed brewer SABMiller weakened 40 cents to R85,60 and pulp and paper producer Sappi shed 65 cents to R87,85.
Telecoms group Telkom slid 1,23% or 95 cents to R76,20.
Cellular network operator MTN Group surrendered 1,37% or 40 cents to R28,70.
Health and life insurer Discovery dropped 3,43% or 49 cents to R13,81 and life assurer Sage took a 6,25% or 10 cent nosedive to trade at R1,50.
Sage on Wednesday reported a headline loss per share of 10,5 cents for the six months ended June 30 2004 from headline earnings per share of 29,8 cents a year earlier.
The I-Net Bridge consensus forecast of two analysts had been for headline earnings per share of 14,8 cents.
Investment holding company VenFin fell 1,9% or 40 cents to R20,60 after climbing 50 cents on Wednesday.
After the close on Tuesday, VenFin reported a 16,3% rise in its headline earnings per share for the year to end-June 2004, to 151,4 cents from 130,2 cents a year earlier. The group declared a dividend for the year of 32,5 cents per share, representing a 30% increase on the 25 cents distributed in 2003.
London-listed diversified miner BHP Billiton eased 23 cents to R61,75. – I-Net Bridge