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The markets also expect important economic news from the United States later today and from China tomorrow, but it did not seem to put a damper on activity.
By midday, the all share index which closed on a new record high on Tuesday, was a further 155.19 points up at 47 268‚ with the blue-chip top 40 index firming by 156.97 points to 42 733.
Resources (+0.51% ), gold shares (+0.89% ) and industrial shares (+0.49%) were all higher, with heavyweights like Naspers [JSE:NPN] and South African Breweries [JSE:SAB] continuing their strong run.
South Africa’s consumer price index (CPI)‚ used to measure inflation‚ increased to 5.8% year on year (y/y) in January from 5.4% in December‚ Statistics SA said on Wednesday. It seems that this news was discounted already.
This afternoon housing data in the US will confirm if the US recovery had taken a knock from the winter weather. The minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting will also be released tonight and will give an indication if there are any discontent amongst the members about the decision to continue to taper.
The release of the Chinese HSBC purchasing managers index (PMI) figure tomorrow morning will be of more importance to South Africa, particularly if it confirms fears of a Chinese slowdown‚ as it will be bad for South Africa’s commodity exports.
Naspers, which closed on a record high last night, strengthened another 0.58% to R1 297.50 and South African Breweries traded at R509.01, an improvement of 0.69%.
BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL], which also closed on a record high last night after strong results yesterday, gave the resources index another boost when it traded 0.67% higher as R355.61.
AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] was up 1.19% to R192.28 from Tuesday's close‚ after reporting strong production in the quarter ended December 2013 of 1.229 million ounces – up 43% over the previous period.
Gold Fields gave up earlier gains and by 13:00 was down 0.04% at R43.40.
