Johannesburg - The JSE share market closed flat (0.05%) on Wednesday off the intra-day all-time high‚ with gold miners leading the upside and platinum in the red.
“Gold miners were higher on the back of a higher gold price and further monetary stimulus out of Japan‚ while platinum started higher due to the end of the strike at Lonmin‚ but then drifted lower again‚” said Kevin Algeo‚ portfolio manager at Imara SP Reid.
The Bank of Japan followed in other central bank’s footsteps by easing its monetary policy further. It increased the size of its asset-purchase program to ¥80 trillion or $1.01 trillion from ¥70 trillion previously. It also extended the programme by six months to the end of next year.
Meanwhile the Lonmin strike ended on Tuesday evening when a pay agreement was reached‚ whereby the lowest underground worker would be paid R9 611 up from R8 164 and a rock driller would earn R11 078 from R9 063 previously.
At 17.00 local time‚ the JSE all-share index was up 0.05% to 36 463.14 points‚ with gold shares rallying 2.45% and the platinum index dipping 0.66%.
European bourses were trading a tad higher with the UK FTSE 100 index last seen 0.18% up.
Among local stocks that showed movement were Harmony Gold Mining Company
[JSE:HAR] surging 4.42% to R77.75 and Gold Fields
[JSE:GFI] jumping 3.71% to R109.93.
Amongst platinum‚ Northam Platinum
[JSE:NHM] shed 3.48% to R29.92 and Impala Platinum Holdings
[JSE:IMP] lost 1.13% to R145.53.
Lonmin
[JSE:LON] closed 1.49% higher at R87.80 after gaining almost 10% in early morning trade.