The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) was weaker, but off its worst levels, in noon trade on Tuesday, having been driven primarily by the rand.
At noon, the all-share and all-share industrial indices were 0,37% and 0,26% weaker respectively. Financials fell 0,25% and the banks index was 0,21% in the red. Resources retreated 0,53% and the gold-mining index lost 0,39%, but the platinum-mining index picked up 0,45%.
The rand was quoted at R6,54 per dollar from R6,57 when the JSE closed on Monday, while gold was quoted at $403,70 an ounce from $402,25/oz at the JSE’s last close.
“The market is a bit easier, although volumes are not bad. It is down because of the rand,” a dealer said.
He added, however, that with the currency easing from its best levels seen earlier in the morning, some of the rand hedge stocks had come off their lows.
In morning trade, London-listed diversified miner Anglo American slipped 1,18% or R1,75 to R146,25 and BHP Billiton weakened 50 cents to R61,10.
AngloPlat eased R1,31 to R285,20.
Gold Fields fell 30 cents to R77,70 and Harmony lost 74 cents to R79,85.
The dealer said that news of a strike at Harmony scheduled for October 6 had negatively impacted on the stock.
He added that with a number of other strikes either under way or pending, including the public services strike on Thursday, a bit of negative sentiment was being seen from offshore.
Resources stocks to advance on Tuesday included petrochemicals group Sasol, which strengthened 95 cents to R119,35. It earlier traded at a two-year high of R120.
Impala Platinum jumped 1,11% or six rand to R545.
Swiss-listed luxury goods group Richemont dipped seven cents to R17,30 and London-listed brewer SABMiller shed 48 cents to R83,75.
Services group Bidvest shed 45 cents to R59,55 and London-listed IT group Dimension Data dropped 1,1% or four cents to R3,60.
Retailer Pick ‘n Pay retreated 1,14% or 22 cents to R19,12.
Steel producer Ispat Iscor, which plunged 4,8% on Monday, was again under pressure and was 32 cents softer at R44,90.
The losses follow an announcement on Friday of the appointment of a new executive team.
Davinder Chugh will assume the role of CEO and Vaidya Sethuraman will assume the role of executive director of finance as successor to Malcolm Macdonald. Juba Mashaba will fill the vacant post of executive director of human resources on October 1 2004.
Louis van Niekerk, whose contract as CEO was due to end in March 2005, will assume the position of non-executive deputy chairperson of the board.
On the upside, pulp and paper producer Sappi picked up 1,41% or R1,25 to R90 and furniture group Steinhoff leaped 1,6% or 14 cents to R8,91.
On the financial front, banking group Nedcor was down 40 cents at R57,35, Absa lost 15 cents to R58,35 and Standard Bank dipped 10 cents to R47,55.
Sanlam slid 1,01% or 10 cents to R9,80.
London-listed Old Mutual firmed five cents to R12,80 and banking group FirstRand inched up two cents to R11,12.
Before the opening, FirstRand reported a 19% increase in headline earnings per share from 92,5 cents to 110,3 cents for the 12 months ended June.
The group declared a dividend per share of 46 cents, which was 31% up on last year’s dividend of 35 cents per share.
“FirstRand’s results were pretty much in line with expectations, but the dividend was slightly better than expected,” a dealer commented. — I-Net Bridge