The JSE Securities Exchange was a mixed bag at noon on Friday after a dull morning session that lacked major drivers. At just over a billion rand, value traded was reasonable, but by no means fantastic.
By 12.05pm, the all share index was down a marginal 0,07%. The financial and banks indices fell 0,55% and 1,08% respectively, while the platinum mining index weakened 0,86%. Resources were flat (-0,05%), the all share industrial index inched up 0,12% and the gold mining index gained 0,33%.
The rand was quoted at 5,94 per dollar from 5,96 when the JSE closed on Thursday, while gold was quoted at $427,05 a troy ounce from $426,30/oz at the JSE’s last close.
A dealer said that overall it had been a dull, flat morning’s trade.
“There is no real news out. There have been a couple of upgrades on Kumba, while Impala has been downgraded at Investec,” he added.
He said that on the downside, the JSE was just following the Dow.
While the gold price was up, the stronger rand was tempering its positive effect.
“There are no real drivers at the moment — volumes are pretty thin,” he concluded.
On the JSE’s resources index, petrochemicals group Sasol was 95 cents stronger at R136,75 after earlier trading at a best ever R137,25.
Anglo American added R1,58 to R150,85, but BHP Billiton eased 43 cents to R81,25 after a strong rally over the past two days.
Kumba jumped 1,52% or 80 cents to R53,30. The dealer said that Investec had upped its recommendation on the stock to “buy” from “hold”.
Impala Platinum, which had its target price cut to R530 by Investec, slid 1,75% or nine rands to R504, but AngloPlat added one rand to R230.
Gold miner Gold Fields gained 1,14% or 77 cents to R68,40 and AngloGold Ashanti strengthened 158 cents to R208,60, but Harmony surrendered 45 cents to R47,70. It earlier traded at R47,50 — its weakest since September 2001.
DRDGold dived 8,93% or 76 cents to R7,75 after it announced that it expected its headline loss per share for the six months ended December 31, 2004 would be more than 200% greater than that of the comparable period in the prior year.
On the industrial market, Telkom surged to a lifetime high of R116,31 in morning trade and last quoted at R114 — still up 1,79% or two rand on the day.
Steel producer Ispat Iscor strengthened 3,66% or R2,05 to R58,05.
Media group Caxton climbed 1% or 12 cents to R12,10. Before the opening, the group reported a 26,4% increases in diluted headline earnings per share to 52,6 cents for the six months ended December 31 2004 from 41,6 cents a year earlier.
Enviroserv Holdings rallied 2,67% or 10 cents to R3,85 after it reported a 15% increase in headline earnings per share to 21,8 cents for the six months ended December 31 2004 from 19 cents a year ago.
However, retailer Foschini fell 1,54% or 55 cents to R35,25 and JD Group surrendered 1,21% or 75 cents to R61,45.
On the financial front, banking group FirstRand fell 1,72% or 24 cents to R13,71. Standard Bank shed 61 cents to R62,69 and Nedcor dropped 59 cents to R76,21.
London-listed financial services group Old Mutual was seven cents in the red at R15,63.
Health and life insurer Discovery, however, was 40 cents in the black at R17,80 ahead of interim results to be released on Monday. – I-Net Bridge