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Johannesburg - The JSE took a breather on Wednesday morning as the market waited for new indicators to push the All-share index towards the magic target of 50 000.
The market opened lower and was moving sideways for most of the morning.
By midday the All-share index was 0.16% lower on 49 536 and the Top-40 index lost 0.10% to 44 513.
The mood was spoiled somewhat by Wall Street on Tuesday night. It closed lower due to another batch of weak retail results, which cast doubt on the recovery of the world’s biggest economy.
Investors were also unnerved by the comments of a senior official of America's Federal Reserve on the possibility of interest rates rising.
Charles Plosser, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, said business conditions could require the central bank to raise rates "sooner rather than later".
One of the reasons for the strong local market is the big yield differential between developed markets and emerging markets.
It entices investors to put funds into emerging markets like South Africa to earn better yields. A rise in American interest rates can shrink that differential.
Plosser is, however, known as one of the hawkish members of the Fed and his views are not necessarily shared by other members.
The fact that the rand strengthened on Wednesday morning, after hitting a two-week low of R10.47 against the dollar on Tuesday, also indicates that investors are not too concerned about Plosser’s comments.
The unit traded again at R10.41 by midday.
Local investors were also awaiting news on the inflation figures as this could have an influence on the SA Reserve Bank’s decision on interest rates on Thursday.
South Africa's headline consumer inflation quickened to 6.1% year-on-year in April, slightly above market expectations, from 6.0% in March, Statistics SA said on Wednesday.
The good news, however, is that core inflation, which excludes the prices of food, non-alcoholic beverages, petrol and energy, was unchanged at 5.5% year-on-year, but slowed to 0.4% month-on-month compared with 1.2% in March.
The biggest company news was that Mediclinic [JSE:MDC] International increased its profit for the full year by 46%, due to strong local demand and a weaker rand that benefited its overseas operations.
Despite much of the increase being discounted already since the company released a profit warning, the share price went up by another 1.41% to yet another record of R79.10.
South Africa's biggest consumer foods maker Tiger Brands [JSE:TBS] reported a rise of 6% in first-half profit on Wednesday, held back by rising raw material costs at home and its underperforming Nigerian unit.
Investors seem to be happy with this as the share price increased by 1.53% to R294.45.
Short-term insurer Santam [JSE:SNT] reached yet another record when its share price gained 3.82% to trade at R217.60.
The share price of its holding company, Sanlam [JSE:SLM], reached a new record of R59.04 two days ago, before taking a breather on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning its share price had gained 0.82%.
Naspers [JSE:NPN] was, as usual, one of the busiest shares on the JSE and by midday its share price was 0.46% higher at R1 199.95.
The market opened lower and was moving sideways for most of the morning.
By midday the All-share index was 0.16% lower on 49 536 and the Top-40 index lost 0.10% to 44 513.
The mood was spoiled somewhat by Wall Street on Tuesday night. It closed lower due to another batch of weak retail results, which cast doubt on the recovery of the world’s biggest economy.
Investors were also unnerved by the comments of a senior official of America's Federal Reserve on the possibility of interest rates rising.
Charles Plosser, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, said business conditions could require the central bank to raise rates "sooner rather than later".
One of the reasons for the strong local market is the big yield differential between developed markets and emerging markets.
It entices investors to put funds into emerging markets like South Africa to earn better yields. A rise in American interest rates can shrink that differential.
Plosser is, however, known as one of the hawkish members of the Fed and his views are not necessarily shared by other members.
The fact that the rand strengthened on Wednesday morning, after hitting a two-week low of R10.47 against the dollar on Tuesday, also indicates that investors are not too concerned about Plosser’s comments.
The unit traded again at R10.41 by midday.
Local investors were also awaiting news on the inflation figures as this could have an influence on the SA Reserve Bank’s decision on interest rates on Thursday.
South Africa's headline consumer inflation quickened to 6.1% year-on-year in April, slightly above market expectations, from 6.0% in March, Statistics SA said on Wednesday.
The good news, however, is that core inflation, which excludes the prices of food, non-alcoholic beverages, petrol and energy, was unchanged at 5.5% year-on-year, but slowed to 0.4% month-on-month compared with 1.2% in March.
The biggest company news was that Mediclinic [JSE:MDC] International increased its profit for the full year by 46%, due to strong local demand and a weaker rand that benefited its overseas operations.
Despite much of the increase being discounted already since the company released a profit warning, the share price went up by another 1.41% to yet another record of R79.10.
South Africa's biggest consumer foods maker Tiger Brands [JSE:TBS] reported a rise of 6% in first-half profit on Wednesday, held back by rising raw material costs at home and its underperforming Nigerian unit.
Investors seem to be happy with this as the share price increased by 1.53% to R294.45.
Short-term insurer Santam [JSE:SNT] reached yet another record when its share price gained 3.82% to trade at R217.60.
The share price of its holding company, Sanlam [JSE:SLM], reached a new record of R59.04 two days ago, before taking a breather on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning its share price had gained 0.82%.
Naspers [JSE:NPN] was, as usual, one of the busiest shares on the JSE and by midday its share price was 0.46% higher at R1 199.95.
