/ 14 July 2008

Technical problems delay opening of JSE

The technical problems that have delayed the opening of the JSE on Monday had still not been resolved by noon on Monday.

A JSE official confirmed earlier that technical problems were affecting the news feed.

“The JSE is investigating and we are providing the market with regular updates,” the official said.

Another official confirmed that a JSE team was still working on the problem.

The technical problem also affected the Stock Exchange News Service news (Sens) feed. Sens is the service that carries the official announcements by JSE-listed companies.

A local trader said local futures were up, which indicated a firm opening for the local bourse. At 12.25am the near-dated alsi future was up 172
points, or 0,65%.

In London, the FTSE100 is up 92 points, or 1,7%.

The only major piece of company news on Monday morning has been from platinum producer Anglo Platinum, which said in a statement that its earnings per share and headline earnings per share for the half-year to end June 2008 are expected to be between 15% and 25% higher than those reported for
the same period a year ago.

The platinum giant reported earnings per share of R29,44 and headline earnings per share of R29,43.

“The expected increase is primarily as a result of higher rand prices of metals sold despite lower sales volumes,” the company said in a statement.

Dow Jones Newswires reports that US stocks are expected to soar at the open on the news that the Fed is prepared to step in to bail out Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac, says Martin Slaney, trader at GFT Global Markets.

“Initial market reaction to the bail-out package is favourable, although with market confidence still low, it will be interesting to see if this can be sustained,” he says, noting the week ahead is full of economic and corporate releases. – I-Net Bridge