South African stocks were in positive territory at noon on Thursday, moving in line with global markets which earlier in the day found some stable ground after having fallen heavily in Wednesday’s trade.
Traders say there was a lot of panic and overselling in the market on Wednesday but that today they were seeing some bargain hunting on local markets.
“The market has come up nicely and that is on the fact that we are seeing some buying into the market,” said a local trader.
“There is a lot of bargain hunting on the market,” he said. “We saw an unnatural pattern of selling on markets yesterday. It was all just overdone.”
At 12.10pm the all-share index was up 2,01%, with resources gaining 4,10%, platinum miners jumping 5,77% and gold stocks 3,64% firmer.
Industrials came up 0,82%, financials were 0,27% stronger and banks gained 1,65%.
The rand was bid at 9,01 to the dollar from 9,22 when the JSE closed on Wednesday, while gold was last quoted at $889,45 a troy ounce from $914 when the JSE last closed.
Platinum was trading at $1 006/oz from a previous close of $990,50/oz. Brent crude was at $84,43 per barrel, from its previous close of $84,36.
This morning a trader said, “It isn’t unusual to see sectors which experienced heavy losses over the past few days show some signs of recovery,” but he further pointed out that “the day-to-day volatility is still dominant in the markets”.
Dow Jones Newswires reports that the FTSE 100 was up 3% at 4 498,28 and ticking higher, erasing some of Wednesday’s losses as the market anticipates further coordinated rate cuts to steady the global economy.
“Market reaction has been mixed so far, which will only heighten expectations of further policy stimulus,” said equity strategists at ING Financial Markets. “Further aggressive monetary policy easing is likely globally.”
On the JSE, Anglo American came up R10,03, or 4,34%, to R241,03 and BHP Billiton was up R5,59, or 3,51%, to R165.
Paper producer Sappi jumped R7,15, or 11,77%, to R67,90.
Sasol gained R10,50, or 4,06%, to R269.
Gold miner AngloGold was up R2,50, or 1,54%, to R164.50, Gold Fields gained R4,17, or 5,79%, to R76,17 and Harmony put on R3,92, or 4,51%, to R90,92.
Among platinum miners Anglo Platinum strengthened R31,15, or 5,20%, to R630,15 and Impala Platinum was up R8,50, or 6,34%, to R142,50.
Among other miners, African Rainbow was up R3,10, or 2,33%, to R136,09 and Exxaro gained R2,09, or 3,07%, to R70,09.
Financial services group Old Mutual was down 28 cents, or 2,43%, to R11,24 and Sanlam lost 32 cents, or 1,81%, to R17,38.
Standard Bank was up R1,43, or 1,86%, to R78,43,
Nedbank came up R2, 10, or 2,29%, to R94, and Absa gained R2,05, or 2,12%, to R98,80.
Investec added R1,10, or 2,48%, to R45,40 and RMB Holdings was up 24 cents, or 1,06%, to R22,85.
RMB said on Thursday that it fully supported the investigation of the Financial Services Board (FSB) into Dealstream Securities and has provided the FSB
with details of transactions between itself and Dealstream. It had not yet had the opportunity to engage with the FSB over its findings. Should the FSB choose to conduct any further investigation, RMB will cooperate fully, it said.
Among industrials, brewer SABMiller came down R5,18, or 3,27%, to R153,25 and Richemont lost 64 cents, or 1,82%, to R34,47.
The Swiss-based luxury goods group announced earlier that its restructuring plans have moved a step closer after a meeting of shareholders of Compagnie
Financiere Richemont SA in Geneva on Thursday approved the restructuring proposals.
Imperial came up R2,52, or 4,75%, to R55,55.
Telecommunications group MTN added R3,98, or 3,86%, to R107,18 and Telkom gained R5, or 5,06%, to R103,90.
In the news, pharmaceutical manufacturer Aspen remained unchanged at R40. The group, along with Indian company Matrix Laboratories, announced the divestment of the existing joint ventures relating to the two chemical-manufacturing entities, Fine Chemicals Corporation in Cape Town, South Africa and Astrix Laboratories Limited in Hyderabad, India. Aspen said it would acquire 50% of FCC from Matrix and, in turn, dispose of its 50% share in Astrix to Matrix. – I-Net Bridge