Johannesburg - The JSE was holding up well at
noon on Wednesday‚ despite a weaker US overnight close and
disappointing second-quarter results from Apple and other big technology
players. Asian markets also lost value.
“We are holding up pretty well‚ with gold and platinum counters
driving the market and the top 40 index driven by gold. Investors are
risk-averse and a flight to safe-haven gold is seen‚ while the eurozone
crisis continues to be the theme for now‚” said Francois Venter‚
equities dealer at Investec Asset Management in Cape Town.
At 11:56 the All Share [JSE:J203] index was up 0.16% at 34 054.16.
Big movers at noon were Northam Platinum‚ up 31 cents or
1.27% at R24.81‚ and Harmony‚ up 132 cents or 1.74% at R77.00.
Dow Jones Newswires reported that core European stocks were in the
black on Wednesday‚ supported by well-received earnings in the
automotive sector‚ while peripheral equity markets outperformed
following heavy declines in the previous session‚ as investors ignored
downbeat assessments of the German and UK economies.
In London‚ the FTSE 100 index barely reacted to significantly worse
than expected second-quarter gross domestic product figures. At 11:41
local time‚ the index was up 0.18% at 5‚509.34 points.
In the East the Hang Seng index closed down 0.14% at 18 877.33
points and the Nikkei 225 index closed down 1.44% at 8 365.90 points.