The JSE was marginally firmer at midday on Monday, with heavyweight resources stocks keeping its head above water. Losses were seen in financials and industrials, however, and decliners outnumbered advancers on the all-share index by about three to two.
By 12.10pm, the all-share index was up a marginal 0,04%. Resources rallied 1,47%, the gold-mining index jumped 1,78% and the platinum-mining index climbed 0.5%. The financial and banks indices fell 1,53% and 2,13% respectively, while the all-share industrial index lost 0,51%.
The rand was bid at 5,98 per dollar from 6 when the JSE closed on Friday, while gold was quoted at $632,30 a troy ounce from $624.40/oz at the JSE’s last close.
A dealer said that it had been a very choppy morning on the JSE.
“A handful of shares are really dictating the pace, but the rest of the market is pretty shabby,” he said. “We were up quite a bit earlier. All of the running has been made by resources. A couple of shares in the Top 40 have bounced off lower levels, such as Telkom, which has been hammered lately. Apart from that, most of the market is down,” he added.
On the resources index, London-listed Anglo American added 1,55% or R4,10 to R268,10 and BHP Billiton was 2,22% or R2,79 better at R128,20. Both earlier traded at record highs of R269,94 and R129,24 respectively.
Petrochemicals group Sasol strengthened R1 to R250.
Gold Fields leaped 2,34% or R3,51 to R153,50 and Harmony was 2,05% or R2,03 higher at R101,15. AngloGold Ashanti was up R1,55 at R321,15.
AngloPlat advanced 2,08% or R11,50 to R565,50, but Impala eased R4,90 to R1 095,10.
On the all-share industrial index, Telkom rebounded 2,14% or R3 to R143.
Transport and logistics group Imperial rose 77c to R162,10.
City Lodge Hotels firmed 1,31% or 75c to R58.
London-listed brewer SABMiller, however, slipped 1,09% or R1,40 to R126,60.
Swiss-listed luxury goods group Richemont surrendered 15c to R30,60.
Pulp and paper producer Sappi shed 79c to R90,71 and media group Naspers weakened R1,30 to R130.
Standard Bank led financials lower, slumping 3,08% or R2,66 to R83,82. FirstRand fell 1,49% or 30c to R19,80 and Nedbank weakened 1,39% or R1,75 to R124,50. Absa was off R1,20 at R119,80.
London-listed Old Mutual tumbled 2,05% or 43c to R20,57, while Sanlam — South Africa’s second largest life insurer — slid 2,09% or 33c to R15,45.
It was reported on Monday that General Electric was in talks to sell its United Kingdom life insurance business to Sanlam in a deal worth between £400-million and £500-million.
The dealer said that while it was early days, the market had not received the news well.
“On of the reasons people liked Sanlam was that it hasn’t gone into costly areas. The UK is considered to be a very competitive area,” he explained. — I-Net Bridge