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Johannesburg - Share prices on the JSE rose quickly on Wednesday towards record territory, but then moved sideways as markets are waiting for new economic news.
The Federal Reserve’s open market committee meeting starts this afternoon and will hopefully bring more clarity on the Fed’s future monetary policy for the US economy.
The markets will be interested to see what will happen with interest rates, because the current record low levels encourage investors to turn to emerging markets to utilise the huge interest rate differential.
The latest indicators are that interest rates will remain low for longer than originally thought.
The All Share index traded by midday at 48 403 points, 0.69% higher than Tuesday's close, while the Top 40-index improved 0.76% to 43 561 points. All the indices were higher.
The market also received a boost from Wall Street, where the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rallied on Tuesday, leading the market to its first day of gains after three straight days of losses.
Analysts said it was too soon to say if Tuesday's rally meant the tech sector had stabilised.
Nasdaq has been in retreat since early March due to concerns that Facebook, Tesla Motors and other high-flying stocks are overvalued.
But the local market is mainly driven by increased foreign interest, which kept the rand strong below the R10.50/$-level – the strongest this year.
Analyst said foreigners are particularly interested in South African banks with Standard Bank [JSE:SBK] and FirstRand [JSE:FSR] again trading at record levels on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, FirstRand opened slightly lower on R38.58 from Tuesday's record close of R38.75 and at midday it was trading 1.47% lower on R38.28. Standard Bank was 0.15% lower at R143.49 from its previous close.
The financial index was only 0.07% higher, with Sanlam [JSE:SLM] virtually unchanged on R54.86 after a report that the financial services group plans three or four acquisitions in Africa this year.
The news that Woolworths [JSE:WHL] is doing another acquisition in Australia was not well received and the share price dropped 5.2% to R69.65.
Naspers [JSE:NPN] benefitted from the recovery in tech stocks and rose 2.38% tot R1 089.70. Analysts thinks that the drop in the share price of almost R300 because of concerns about the Chinese internet group, Tencent, was overdone.
The Federal Reserve’s open market committee meeting starts this afternoon and will hopefully bring more clarity on the Fed’s future monetary policy for the US economy.
The markets will be interested to see what will happen with interest rates, because the current record low levels encourage investors to turn to emerging markets to utilise the huge interest rate differential.
The latest indicators are that interest rates will remain low for longer than originally thought.
The All Share index traded by midday at 48 403 points, 0.69% higher than Tuesday's close, while the Top 40-index improved 0.76% to 43 561 points. All the indices were higher.
The market also received a boost from Wall Street, where the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rallied on Tuesday, leading the market to its first day of gains after three straight days of losses.
Analysts said it was too soon to say if Tuesday's rally meant the tech sector had stabilised.
Nasdaq has been in retreat since early March due to concerns that Facebook, Tesla Motors and other high-flying stocks are overvalued.
But the local market is mainly driven by increased foreign interest, which kept the rand strong below the R10.50/$-level – the strongest this year.
Analyst said foreigners are particularly interested in South African banks with Standard Bank [JSE:SBK] and FirstRand [JSE:FSR] again trading at record levels on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, FirstRand opened slightly lower on R38.58 from Tuesday's record close of R38.75 and at midday it was trading 1.47% lower on R38.28. Standard Bank was 0.15% lower at R143.49 from its previous close.
The financial index was only 0.07% higher, with Sanlam [JSE:SLM] virtually unchanged on R54.86 after a report that the financial services group plans three or four acquisitions in Africa this year.
The news that Woolworths [JSE:WHL] is doing another acquisition in Australia was not well received and the share price dropped 5.2% to R69.65.
Naspers [JSE:NPN] benefitted from the recovery in tech stocks and rose 2.38% tot R1 089.70. Analysts thinks that the drop in the share price of almost R300 because of concerns about the Chinese internet group, Tencent, was overdone.
