Banking stocks led the upside as the JSE moved 263 points into the black by noon on Thursday in line with stronger European markets.
However, continued profit taking kept gold counters deep in the red.
The JSE all-share index had added 1,40%, resources were up 1,71% and platinum miners edged up 0,25%. However, gold counters were down 1,59%.
Banks gained 3,01%, financials put on 2,23% and industrials edged up 0,61%.
The rand was last bid at 9,95 to the dollar from 9,93 when the JSE closed on Wednesday. Gold was quoted at $946,70/oz a troy ounce from $963,90/oz at the JSE’s last close, and platinum was at $1 045,50/oz from its previous close of $1 046,50/oz.
“This morning it looked like we were going to tread lower for the day. It is quite surprising that we are up despite that weaker close in the US,” a trader said.
“European banks are firm and our local banks are leading us higher, perhaps on speculation of an early interest rate cut.”
“Resources are also stronger with some bargain hunting after they were sold off heavily the past few days.
“US futures are up. For the day we will eye these futures and watch the US opening later,” she said.
Dow Jones Newswires reports that the FTSE 100 was firmly in positive territory, with banking stocks gaining momentum on the initiation of the UK asset protection scheme for the UK bank sector. The sector also got some support on the US government’s plan to provide new capital injections to US banks, announced on Wednesday. The FTSE 100 was last up 1,22%.
US stocks are expected to open higher, boosted by positive trading in Europe on hopes that banks will resume lending.
David Morrison, strategist at GFT, calls the DJIA to open up 60 points and the S&P 500 up 7,1 points.
Among equity movers on the JSE, Anglo American added R6,36, or 4,48%, to R148,48 and BHP Billiton was up R4,51, or 2,82%, to R164,40.
Petrochemicals group Sasol gained R7,04, or 2,71%, to R266,99.
Paper group Mondi was up 45 cents, or 1,95%, to R23,50. The group earlier reported a 49% fall in its headline earnings per share to 20,3 euro cents for the year to end December 2008 from 39,5 euro cents the year before.
Total dividend per share dropped 45% top 12,7 euro cents from 23 euro cents in the prior year.
However, Sappi gave up 19 cents, or 1%, to R18,81.
ArcelorMittal gained R3,75, or 5,28%, to R74,74 and Kumba Iron Ore put on R3,82, or 2,46%, to R159,02.
Gold miner AngloGold Ashanti gave up R4,99, or 1,66%, to R295, Goldfields lost R1,38, or 1,29%, to R105,50 and Harmony weakened 47 cents to R123,63.
Platinum miner Anglo Platinum collected R2,03 to R402,03 and Lonmin was up R7,25, or 5,08%, to R150.
In diversified miners African Rainbow gained R1,75, or 1,62%, to R109,45.
Grindrod was up 15 cents, or 1,09%, to R13,85. Earlier the group reported a 96% increase in diluted headline earnings per share to 504,7 cents for the year ended December 2008 from 257,7 cents a year ago.
A final dividend of 68 cents per share was declared, up from 44 cents a year earlier, making a total dividend of 136 cents, up 74% from 78 cents in 2007.
Revenue was 88% higher at R33,737-billion, while operating profit before interest and tax was 104% higher at R2,785-billion.
Mvelaphanda Group lost 5 cents, or 1,22%, to R4,05. The group earlier reported diluted headline earnings per share of 4,3 cents for the six months to end December 2008, a 105% improvement from the diluted headline loss per share of 80,7 cents reported for the corresponding period the year before. It declared an interim dividend of 27,5 cents a share.
Among industrials, brewer SABMiller was off 69 cents to R145,50. It earlier announced that its joint venture China Resources Snow Breweries had agreed to acquire three breweries in China in separate deals worth together $110-million.
The breweries are in the Anhui, Liaoning and Zhejiang Provinces. “The total investment cost for the three acquisitions is about $110-million, which includes a cash consideration of approximately $93-million,” said SABMiller.
Remgro was up R1,26, or 1,83%, to R70,26, but Barloworld lost R2,09, or 5,89%, to R33,41.
British American Tobacco gained R3,70, or 1,52%, to R247,60. The group earlier reported a 19% increase in adjusted diluted earnings per share from 108,53 pence to 128,78 pence for the year ended December 2008.
Basic earnings per share increased by 17% from 105,19 pence to 123,28 pence.
Among banks Standard Bank was up R2,25, or 3,49%, to R66,75, Absa added R3,85, or 4,38%, to R91,85 and FirstRand collected 30 cents, or 2,46%, to R12,50.
Nedbank gained R3,26, or 4,29%, to R79,26. It earlier reported a 2% decline in diluted headline earnings per share for the year ended December 2008 from 1,429 cents to 1,401 cents.
“Nedbank Group has shown resilience in the face of the challenges posed by the crisis in global financial markets and the rapid slowdown in the domestic economy,” said Nedbank CEO Tom Boardman.
Financial services group Old Mutual firmed 28 cents, or 4,69%, to R6,25 and Investec was up R1,61, or 5,37%, to R31,61.
Wealth and financial services group Liberty Holdings edged up 10 cents to R65. It earlier reported BEE normalised headline earnings per share of 574,6 cents for the year ended December 2008, which was 47,8% lower than the 1 100,4 cents reported for 2007. Basic earnings per share were 32,6% lower at 709,3 cents versus 1 051,8 cents the previous year.
Sugar group Illovo put on 94 cents, or 3,83%, to R25,49 and Tongaat Hulett was up R2,94, or 3,98%, to R76,90.
Wholesale and retail group Massmart gained R2,70, or 3,79%, to R73,95. It earlier reported a 13,3% increase in headline earnings per share for the 26 weeks ended December 2008 from 370,3 cents to 420,1 cents.
Headline earnings increased 13% to R863-million, while trading profit was up 11% to R1,334-billion.
The group declared an interim dividend of 420,1 cents per share, compared to 370,3 cents for the previous comparable half-year — a 13% increase.
Revenue was up 12,8% to R22,813-billion and operating profit was 11,7% higher at R1,303-billion.
Woolies strengthened 20 cents, or 1,64%, to R12,40, Truworths collected 75 cents, or 2,34%, to R32,75 and JD Group added R1,15, or 3,83%, to R31,15.
Real estate investment trust Liberty International plc weakened 61 cents, or 1,29%, to R46,75. It earlier reported a loss before tax of £2 662-billion for the year ended December 2008 after a loss of £2 125-million a year ago. This included a £2 2,05-billion deficit on property revaluations and £2 665-million deficit on valuation of derivative financial instruments.
Adjusted earnings per share fell to 29 pence from 36 pence a year ago.
Telecommunications group MTN Group firmed 90 cents to R91,90 and Telkom gained R1,17, or 1,17%, to R101,27. — I-Net Bridge