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Johannesburg - The JSE was trading in negative territory in early afternoon trade on Wednesday‚ amid consolidation after closing at a record high on Tuesday.
Good gains in general retailers‚ led by furniture retailer Lewis after solid year-end results‚ and stronger platinums‚ were offset by declines in golds and industrials after solid gains on Tuesday.
Meanwhile market participants worldwide are awaiting US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s testimony to the US Congress later today‚ which should shed light on the direction of US monetary easing measures. This should provide further worldwide market direction.
At 12:37‚ the JSE All share [JSE:J203] index was down 0.61% at 41 558.25 points‚ with the Top 40 (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] blue chip index giving back 0.73% to 37 028.18 points.
The general retailer and platinum indices added 1.21% and 0.90% respectively. The gold and industrial indices gave back 0.96% and 0.83% respectively.
“Solid Lewis results sparked renewed interest in the retail sector as we are seeing some cautious buying in this sector today‚” said Devin Schutte‚ market analyst at stockbrokerage Newstrading.
“There is some broad profit taking today after yesterday’s record high and the firmer rand is taking some shine off dual listed industrial counters that pushed us to a lifetime high yesterday‚” he said.
“Resources had a good week so far after this sector has been plagued by negative news‚” he said.
Major European stock exchanges were softer in midday trade‚ with London’s FTSE 100 down 0.19%. US stock market futures were pointing to a slightly firmer start for Wall Street on Wednesday ahead of a key appearance from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke‚ along with minutes of the recent Federal Open Market Committee meeting‚ Dow Jones Newswires reported. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 10 points to 15 365‚ while those for the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.1 points to 1 666.70.
The event of the day will be Bernanke's testimony before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress at 10:00 EDT. It will be his first testimony since late February. The big question is whether Bernanke will give clues to the future direction of the Fed's bond-buying program‚ the newswire reported.
Among individual shares on the JSE‚ rand-hedge stock British American Tobacco (BTI) was trading 1.49% lower at R536.72 and Richemont (CFR) 1.85% softer at R88.82‚ after the rand recovered some of Tuesday’s losses at midday on Wednesday after higher than expected consumer price index figures slashed any hopes of a rate cut on Thursday.
Gold Fields (GFI) dropped 1.83% to R54.07‚ while Harmony (HAR) bucked the trend‚ gaining 1.43% to R35.50. Impala Platinum (IMP) was trading 1.73% firmer at R98.68.
The Lewis Group (LEW) soared more than 10% to R57.24 after reporting a 13.8% rise in full year profit to March on Wednesday morning. The Foschini Group (TFG) gained 4.34% to R107.16 and the JD Group (JDG) was up 3.36% to R30.80 due to more positive sentiment in the sectors after Lewis’ results.
