Strong commodities boost JSE

Johannesburg - Stocks were slightly higher on Wednesday morning supported by commodity stocks which benefited on the back of higher commodity prices.

At 09:19 the JSE all share index had picked up 0.84%, with resources gaining 1.09%. Gold miners increased 1.24% and platinums collected 0.44%.

Banks were up 0.97%, financials were 0.93% higher and industrials edged up 0.49%.

The rand was bid at 7.37 to the dollar from 7.42 when the JSE closed on Tuesday. Gold was quoted at $996.45 a troy ounce from $991.17/oz at the JSE's last close, and platinum was at $1 281/oz, from $1 264.50/oz at its previous close.

"We are higher this morning, Eastern markets were mixed earlier," a trader said.

"Resources and commodities are up and that is on the back of higher commodity prices. Commodity prices are supported by the fact that there are definitely supply problems in the world.

"We are likely to have a positive day today. It is also end of quarter, so the guys overseas will definitely push the market up. We will have to see what happens in the US later today," he said.

International markets

Dow Jones Newswires reports that US stocks closed lower on Tuesday on a slide for several technology bellwethers, including Intel and Dell, and as a disappointing reading on consumer confidence pushed Home Depot into the red.

Still, an earnings-led rally for Walgreen partially offset the declines and helped consumer companies gain broadly.

For the session, the DJIA closed down 47.16 points, or 0.48%, to 9742.20, marking its fourth fall in five sessions. Decliners were led by Home Depot, which closed down 43 cents, or 1.6%, at 26.83.

The S&P 500 lost 2.37, or 0.22%, to 1060.61. Going into the last day of September, the index remains up 3.9% for the month.

For Home Depot and certain other economically sensitive companies, the drop on Tuesday was set off by the Conference Board, which said early in the session that its monthly index of consumer confidence fell to 53.1 in September from 54.5 in August. Analysts had been hoping to see the measure rise to 57.

Ahead of a Wednesday jobs survey from payroll giant Automatic Data Processing, as well as weekly jobless claims data on Thursday and the monthly non-farm payrolls report on Friday, the consumer-confidence figure spooked some traders.

Asian stock markets are mixed on Wednesday. Australian shares were supported by stronger-than-expected retail sales data while in Japan, Toyota Motor was lower on news of its largest-ever safety recall.

In Japan, the Nikkei ended up 0.3% and in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng was last down 0.7%.

European bourses are likely to open mixed in narrow ranges as investors cheer the week's deal news while also staying cautious ahead of key US labour figures this week.

- I-Net Bridge