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JSE hits new intra-day high

Johannesburg - The all share index of  the JSE reached a new intra-day high on Friday morning, after positive economic news from American gave the US and Asian markets a boost.

Although the all share index was at midday lower than earlier levels it was still 237.3 points higher at 47 386. The top 40 index gained 216.61 points to 42 877.

This was in sharp contrast with yesterday when disappointing news about the Chinese economy forced the markets lower.

Rand Merchant Bank said in a morning note that decent US data had offset weak Chinese and eurozone figures.

The US Markit flash purchasing managers index (PMI) figures jumped from 53.7 to 56.7 in February‚ defying expectations of a drop. This is in contrast with the weakness in China (drop from 49.5 to 48.3) and the eurozone (52.9 to 52.7).

"With a drop in US jobless claims‚ the economic news out of the US is positive‚ allowing for some gains on Wall Street overnight and a recovery in risk appetite‚” RMB said.

Imara SP Reid said in its daily market snapshot the overall trend on the JSE remains positive and further advances cannot be excluded.

When the market runs it is often the heavyweights which pull the indexes higher and it happened again this morning. Amongst the heavyweights Naspers [JSE:NPN] traded 2.48% higher at R1 267.07 and SAB [JSE:SAB] rose 1.20% to R513.92. Anglo American [JSE:AGL] was virtually unchanged at R281.73.

Transport and logistics group Imperial Group [JSE:IPL] gained 0.49% to R162 after the group appointed Mark Lamberti as new CEO‚ succeeding Hubert Brody.

Gold Fields [JSE:GFI] lost 0.24% to R42.37 but  AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] was up 0.46% to R192.78.

Northam Platinum [JSE:NHM] started the day sharply lower, but recovered later and was 1.7% higher on R43.10.

The group said on Friday that its total comprehensive loss of R92.7m for the six months ended December 2013 was largely attributable to the protracted industrial action at Zondereinde. A year ago the group reported a profit of R145.2m.

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Rand - Dollar
18.90
+0.2%
Rand - Pound
23.85
+0.2%
Rand - Euro
20.39
+0.2%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.32
+0.2%
Rand - Yen
0.12
+0.2%
Platinum
908.05
0.0%
Palladium
1,014.94
0.0%
Gold
2,232.75
-0.0%
Silver
24.95
-0.1%
Brent Crude
87.00
+1.8%
Top 40
68,346
0.0%
All Share
74,536
0.0%
Resource 10
57,251
0.0%
Industrial 25
103,936
0.0%
Financial 15
16,502
0.0%
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