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JSE stays positive at noon

Johannesburg - The JSE was still on the front foot at noon on Wednesday, mainly underpinned by strong buying interest in the gold and resources sectors.

At 12:01 local time, the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was up 0.35% to 33 940.11 points, with resources adding 0.78%, platinum shares advancing 0.32% and gold counters lifting 1.72%.

Financials were marginally positive, up 0.21%, as were banking stocks at 0.13%, while industrials edged up 0.13%.

The rand was firmer at 7.75 to the US dollar, from 7.79 at the JSE's close on Tuesday. Gold was quoted at $1 636.92 a troy ounce from $1 642.55/oz at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was at $1 547.50/oz, from $1 548.50/oz at the previous session.

"The healthy demand for euro area sovereign debt, coupled with the good US corporate earnings picture brought a relative sense of calm into the equity markets," said Hennie Fourie, stockbroker at PSG Konsult.

Francois van der Merwe, head of macro research at Novare Investments, said that although the global macro-economic backdrop remained uncertain, historically low interest rates would fuel investors' search for yield and cause assets deemed risky to continue performing well, but with high levels of volatility.

"In an environment where markets react to daily data releases, one can expect volatility to remain. However, as investors move up the risk spectrum, we believe that equities will continue to perform."

European stocks also maintained positive momentum on Wednesday, with London's FTSE 100 index up 0.27% to 5 724.79 points.

Earlier, Asian stock markets ended mixed as some caution prevailed ahead of the US Federal Reserve's policy-meeting outcome later in the global day, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average ended up 1%, China's Shanghai Composite Index finished 0.8% higher but Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped 0.2%.

US stock index futures traded higher, boosted by consensus-beating quarterly results from Apple as investors awaited a statement from US Federal Reserve policy makers.
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Rand - Dollar
18.88
+0.3%
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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