The JSE was a touch firmer in noon trade on Tuesday, buoyed by futures-related buying, dealers said. The gains came despite a weaker Dow overnight and a poor performance by the Hang Seng.
By 12.04pm, the all-share and all-share industrial indices added 0,13% and 0,12% respectively. Resources rose 0,3% and the platinum mining index jumped 1,66%, but the gold-mining index lost 1,36%. Financials fell 0,17% and the banks index was 0,22% in the red.
The rand was bid at 7,26 per dollar, little changed from when the JSE closed on Monday, while gold was quoted at $664,85 a troy ounce from $664,45/oz at the JSE’s last close.
A dealer said that the Dow was down overnight and, while the Nikkei was up on Tuesday, the Hang Seng was sharply weaker.
“We were down — the Hang Seng was our catalyst — but there seems to be some buying coming in. I think there might have been a gap on the futures, which created the spark. From there, there seems to have been a buying programme pushing us up as well.”
Were it not for this buying, the JSE would probably have been down quite a bit, he asserted.
On the JSE’s resources index, BHP Billiton was 1,13% or R1,68 better at R149,98. It earlier traded at a record high of R150,15.
United Kingdom newspaper the Times reported on Tuesday that BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto had drawn up plans for a $40-billion takeover of Alcoa, one of the world’s largest aluminium groups.
Anglo American inched up 75 cents to R347,25.
Impala Platinum leaped 3,16% or R6,50 to R212.
Petrochemicals group Sasol, however, slipped R2,50 to R242,50 due to the pullback in the oil price.
AngloGold Ashanti tumbled 2,36% or R8,30 to R344 and Gold Fields gave up 1,39% or R1,75 to R124,50. DRDGOLD dived 7,1% or 39 cents to R5,10.
Before the opening, AngloGold reported adjusted headline earnings (HEPS) per share for the quarter to end December of 124 cents, compared with 367 cents in the September quarter.
The adjusted HEPS figure excludes non-hedge derivatives, fair value adjustments on convertible bonds and interest-rate swaps.
Without removing these factors a headline loss per share of 54 cents would have been recorded compared with a profit of 534 cents in the September quarter.
Harmony, however, climbed 75 cents to R96,50.
While Swiss-listed luxury goods group Richemont dipped 14 cents to R40,10, London-listed brewer SABMiller inched 26 cents higher to R165,90
Mittal Steel strengthened R1 to R104 and pulp and paper producer Sappi firmed 1,62% or R1,66 to R103,88.
Retailer Woolies rallied 2,01% or 41 cents to R20,78, having touched an all-time high of R20,85. Truworths rang up 1,12% or 40 cents to R36.
Construction and engineering group Aveng gained 1,04% or 38 cents to R36,98 and Group Five firmed 1,04% or 50 cents to R48,75.
Transport and logistics group Imperial, however, retreated 1,69% or R2,82 to R164,08.
Generic medicine manufacturer Aspen Pharmacare slumped 1,9% or 64 cents to R33,06.
On the financial front, Sanlam strengthened 1,17% or 22 cents to R18,98d.
Health and life insurer Discovery jumped 2,47% or 70 cents to R29.
UK-listed real estate group Liberty International, however, retreated 1,88% or R3,50 to R183. The dealer said that there was a lot of selling of the counter out of London. It is due to report full year results on Wednesday.
While Standard Bank was 40 cents in the black at R97, FirstRand (FSR) fell 17 cents to R22,65. Absa surrendered R1,20 to R129,30 and Nedbank was off 65 cents at R131,60. — I-Net Bridge