Johannesburg - The JSE lifted on Wednesday‚ trimming its monthly decline to just over 7% as investors snapped up beaten down shares in industrial‚ banking and financial stocks.
But gold stocks came under heavy-selling pressure‚ as the gold spot fell in excess of 3% to its lowest level since August 2010.
The selling momentum appears to have slowdown and people are
looking for value‚” said Greg Davies‚ an equities trader at Cratos
Capital.
“But the case for investing in gold is not too strong at the moment. Market players feel less need to hedge themselves against inflation in the light of the anticipated end of the US’s ultra-loose monetary policy.”
At 12:32‚ the All Share [JSE:J203] index was up 0.58% to 38 707.41‚ with the blue-chip Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] index nudging up 0.51%. The banking and financial indices lifted 1.27% and 1.66% respectively but the gold index tumbled 5.92%.
Leading European markets were higher at noon‚ with UK’s FTSE 100 gaining 1.12% while US stock futures pointed to a higher opening on Wall Street.
Among individual shares on the JSE‚ Anglo American (AGL) slid 2.58% to 197.20‚ with Impala Platinum (IMP) shedding 2.14% to R274.98.
AngloGold Ashanti (ANG) was off 6.62% at R131.38‚ with Gold Sibanye Gold (SGL) losing 5.41% to R7 and Harmony Gold (HAR) giving up 4.41% to R33.18.
Diversified industrial group Bidvest (BVT) gained 3.11% to R232 while Nedbank (NED) lifted 1.14% to R170.86 and Abil (ABL) regaining 2.88% to R15.74.
Discovery Holdings (DSY) was up 2.26% to R79.95.