The JSE was looking robust in noon trade on Thursday, benefiting from a higher gold price, firmer world markets and solid corporate results. A stronger rand did little to dampen the bourse’s spirits.
By 12.02pm, the all-share index advanced 0,96%. Resources rallied 1,92% and the gold-mining index jumped 2,39%, but the platinum-mining index lost 0,86%. Industrials and financials firmed 0,38% and 0,31% and the banks index was 0,71% better.
The rand was bid at R6,71 per dollar from R6,77 when the JSE closed on Wednesday, while gold was quoted at $480,30 a troy ounce from $475,38/oz at the JSE’s last close.
Gold hit its highest level in almost 18 years of $482,50/oz in Asian trade on Thursday.
“We’ve got a rampant market. We’ve got strong demand for all the resources stocks. The stronger rand should be impacting on the negative side, but we’ve got huge buying of resources,” a dealer said.
He added that resources stocks were benefiting from the higher gold price. Platinum stocks had eased however as the platinum price, which was last at $975/oz, came off 25-year highs.
The dealer continued that while the Dow was down overnight, the Nikkei was very strong on Thursday and European markets were in positive territory.
A number of companies had released good results before the opening, further helping the JSE.
On the resources index, Gold Fields leaped 3,07% or R2,94 to R98,65, Harmony was 2,88% or R2,36 higher at R84,35 and AngloGold Ashanti added 1,41% or four rand to R288,50.
Harmony earlier traded at a 13-month high of R84,35.
The dealer noted that Gold Fields shares were up more than 10% in New York on the news that Harmony had sold its remaining 26,5-million Gold Fields shares, constituting 5,4% of Gold Fields’ issued shares, at an average price of R93,228 per share.
“There might have been a bit of a squeeze. Guys only got 50% to 60% of their allocation of Gold Fields from Harmony and this might have pushed it a bit. The completion of Harmony’s sale got rid of the threat of a share overhang as well,” the dealer commented.
Petrochemicals group Sasol soared 4,28% or R9,20 to R224,05, helped by a recovery in the oil price.
Global resources group BHP Billiton was up 2,04% or R1,98 to R98,98, while Anglo American added 1,72% or R3,55 to R209,60. Both were up in the United Kingdom.
Iron-ore miner Kumba bounced 1,35% or R1,40 to R105.
Junior miner Simmers was a feature, rocketing 6,67% or five cents to 80 cents. It traded as high as 86 cents earlier in the morning.
More than R8-million-worth of Simmers shares had traded — more than in the average month.
Simmers announced before the opening that it had obtained board approval to form a new uranium company to investigate the viability of mining uranium deposits at its Buffelsfontein and Hartebeesfontein mines in the North West.
To this end, Simmers has concluded a financing agreement with a private Canadian entity, First Uranium Corporation, to fund the project without diluting Simmers’ equity.
“The Simmers deal has been on the cards for a while,” the dealer said. “Now that it is coming to a conclusion, there might be speculative interest in the share.”
AngloPlat, on the other hand, weakened 1,46% or seven rand to R473 and Impala eased R4,99 to R877,01.
On the all-share industrial index, Swiss-listed luxury-goods group Richemont rose 2,01% or 52 cents to R26,36 after it reported a 28% decline in diluted earnings per unit for the six months to the end of September 2005 to €0,942 from €1,315 euros a year earlier. However, excluding the impact of non-recurring items in both periods, diluted earnings per unit rose 48% to €0,956 from €0,644 the previous year.
Sugar producer Illovo surged 6% or 60 cents to R10,60 after it reported actual diluted headline earnings per share of 48 cents for the six months ended September 30 from 16,8 cents a year. On a sugar season basis — which is the company’s favoured benchmark — diluted headline earnings per share were 43,2 cents from 20,2 cents a year ago. Headline earnings per share were up 114,4% to 43,8 cents.
The group declared an interim dividend of 20 cents from 12 cents a year ago.
Mr Price was up 3,35% or 53 cents at R16,33 after the market took a shine to its 52% rise in diluted headline earnings per share for the six months to the end of September 2005 to 46,5 cents from 30,6 cents a year earlier.
The company declared an interim distribution of 24,3 cents per share, up from 13,2 cents at the halfway point in 2004, reducing its distribution cover to 2,0 times earnings from 2,4 times in the year-earlier period.
Other strong performers among industrials included retailer JD Group, which rang up 1,83% or R1,30 to R72,25.
Telkom ticked 1,9% or R2,60 higher to R139,50 and food group Tiger Brands strengthened 1,1% or R1,50 to R137,30.
Hospital group Netcare gained 1,43% or 23 cents to R7,09. The company released its results before the opening on Wednesday.
On the downside, cellular network operator MTN Group dropped 2,67% or R1,54 to R56,21.
Pulp and paper producer Sappi was 2,89% or R2,24 softer at R75,25 and London-listed IT group Dimension Data tumbled 2,99% or 13 cents to R4,22.
On the financial front, short-term insurer Mutual & Federal rebounded 3,85% or one rand to R27.
Life insurer Sanlam was 1,53% or 20 cents stronger at R13,30 and Liberty Group gained 1,14% or 79 cents to R69,99.
Banking group FirstRand firmed 1,51% or 25 cents to R16,80 and Absa added 1,46% or R1,30 to R90,50.
Specialist banking group Investec plc was 40 cents in the black at R270,50, but Investec Limited was 1,3% or R3,50 in the red at R265,50, while off its intraday high of R270.
Investec shares have enjoyed a strong run in recent days in the run-up to its results, which were released before the opening.
“Investec’s results were superb, but the shares have been unable to hang on to their gains. There might be some profit-taking coming in,” the dealer commented.
Investec reported a 43,1% leap in headline earnings per share for the six months to the end of September from 58,3 pence to 83,4 pence.
The group declared an interim dividend per share of 38 pence, which was a 26,7% increase on the 30 pence dividend declared for the previous comparable half-year. — I-Net Bridge