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Johannesburg - Solid demand for industrial stocks such as Richemont and Naspers [JSE:NPN] propelled the JSE to a fresh high on Thursday‚ outpacing the continuing selloff in the resources sector on a combination of weaker commodity prices and labour tensions.
At 12:49‚ the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was up 0.91% to 41 389.72 points‚ with the Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] blue chip index rallying 1.20%. Industrial and financial indices gained 1.61% and 0.74% respectively while the gold and platinum benchmarks lost 3.11% and 1.86% respectively.
“It is a tale of two markets: The industrial sector continues to dominate the market while anaemic demand for commodities continues to push down metal prices‚” said Devin Shutte‚ a trader at Newstrading.
Management at Anglo Platinum’s (AMS) Tumela mine near Thabazimbi was to meet protesting workers on Thursday to learn more about their grievances.
The news flow knocked the rand to R9.37 to the US dollar‚ further boosting those industrial and financial shares that receive the bulk of their earnings in foreign currencies.
Further afield‚ top European share markets were mixed at noon‚ with UK’S FTSE 100 edging up 0.15%.
Among individual shares on the JSE‚ Richemont (CFR) soared 7.11% to R85 after the Swiss-based luxury goods group posted a 30% rise in full year profit to March‚ and media group Naspers (NPN) rallied 3.18% to 721.32 after gaining more than 5% on Wednesday.
Anglo American Platinum (AMS) was down 4.02% to R286.50 and Impala Platinum (IMP) fell 3.13% to R94.30.
Sibanye Gold (SGL) was down 4.83% to R7.69
Among construction stocks‚ Aveng (AEG) was down 6.65% to R28.64 and PPC (PPC) dropped 4.06% to R33.33 in what dealers attributed to market anxiety about the ongoing competition authorities’ investigation into the alleged anti-competitive behaviour in the sector.
