After taking a pounding in recent days, the JSE Securities Exchange bounced into the black at the opening on Thursday on the back of a rebound in European markets. Expectations that the rand’s recent rally had come to an end and continued strength in gold added to the positive picture.
By 9.12am, the all share and all share industrial indices added 0,47% and 0,32% respectively. Resources rallied 0,99%, the gold mining index jumped 1,03% and the platinum mining index picked up 0,16%. The financial and banks indices both eased 0,11%.
The rand was quoted at 6,31 per dollar, little changed from when the JSE closed on Wednesday, while gold was quoted at $424,60 an ounce from $424,95/oz at the JSE’s last close.
The rand traded at a best level of 6,25 on Wednesday morning, while gold was trading at $422,30/oz at noon on Wednesday before strengthening in the afternoon on the back of dollar weakness.
“The market has been hit quite hard and, with the rand a bit weaker, it is having a bit of a bounce,” a dealer said.
He added that when the JSE closed on Wednesday, the Dow was down about 80 points, but it had recovered to close only 10 points weaker. European markets and the JSE had also recovered on the back of that.
In early trade, London-listed diversified resources group Anglo American advanced 1,09% or R1,51 to R140 and BHP Billiton was 1,49% or 95 cents to R64,80.
BHP Billiton said before the opening that it had seen record aluminium primary metal production, manganese ore output and iron production during the group’s first quarter ended September.
BHP Billiton’s September quarter aluminium output totalled 339 000 tonnes, the group’s manganese ore output was 1,4-million tons and iron ore output was 22,5-milion tons.
Gold Fields gained 1,37% or R1,21 to R89,71 and Harmony was 1,18% or 85 cents higher at R73. AngloGold Ashanti was up 99 cents at R238.
On the industrial market, steel producer Ispat Iscor surged 2,06% or one rand to R49,50. Pulp and paper producer Sappi was 85 cents stronger at R87,30 and hospital group Netcare climbed four cents to R5,49.
Retailer Nu Clicks was 1,88% or 14 cents in the red at R731, although only 13 600 shares had traded. Nu Clicks earlier reported a 12,7% rise in its fully diluted headline earnings per share from continuing operations for the year to August 31, 2004, to 68,3 cents from 60,6 cents a year earlier. The company declared a final dividend of 22,5 cents, up from 15,1 cents in 2003.
The dealer said that Nu Clicks’ results were in line with expectations as the company had released a trading update on October 11.
London-listed financial services group Old Mutual lost 10 cents to R12,80 and banking group FirstRand fell five cents to R11,80.
AFX reports that blue chips rallied into the close to end only slightly lower Wednesday, while the Nasdaq gained on a rebound in semiconductor shares amid persistent concern over high oil prices and lacklustre earnings reports.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 10,69 points at 9,853, but off a two-month intraday low of 9,804.14, reached in morning trading.
Within the benchmark index, Honeywell International was the biggest percentage decliner, sliding 4.6% as the company’s third-quarter results prompted a downgrade from brokerage Merrill Lynch.
JP Morgan Chase, meanwhile, fell 1,9% in the wake of its lacklustre third-quarter performance.
On the upside, Intel’s 3% gain and a close to 2% jump in shares of Microsoft helped the Dow bounce off its lows. Exxon Mobil also rose, gaining 1,6%, bolstered by the rise in oil.
The Nasdaq Composite Index closed just off its session high, up 10,07 points, at 1,932.97.
The S&P 500 Index put in a fractional gain to end 0,43 points higher, at 1,103.66. – I-Net Bridge