Johannesburg - The JSE Ltd
[JSE:JSE] share market ended higher on Wednesday‚ underpinned by the resources and industrial sectors‚ which benefited from the rand weakness.
Positive risk sentiment linked to the approval of the eurozone bailout fund by the German Constitutional Court appeared to have lost steam in late trade‚ with some leading European markets turning lower‚ while US stocks were flat. Traders attributed the pull back to some caution ahead of the US Federal Reserve policy meeting on Thursday.
At 17:00‚ the JSE all-share index was up 0.82% to 35 736.41 points‚ with resources gaining 0.89% and industrials lifting 0.91%‚ while the platinum index dropped 1.12%.
“The rand weakness points to the possibility that market players‚ in particular foreigners‚ were liquidating their positions in some of SA equities or bonds even though we finished positive on the all-share index‚” said Ian Cruickshanks‚ market watcher at Nedbank Capital.
Among individual shares on the JSE‚ BHP Billiton
[JSE:BIL] lifted 2.85% to R257.70‚ but Anglo Platinum
[JSE:AMS] shed 4.05% to R417.50‚ Lonmin
[JSE:LON] lost 4.05% to R77.14‚ while Aquarius Platinum
[JSE:AQP] lifted 5.88% to R5.40.
Harmony Gold Mining Company
[JSE:HAR] shed 2.72% to R68.65‚ while Exxaro Resources
[JSE:EXX] climbed 2.32% to R164.
Among industrial shares‚ SABMiller
[JSE:SAB] gained 2.24% to R364.
Vodacom Group
[JSE:VOD] lifted 1.32% to R108.10‚ and Investec plc
[JSE:INP] rallied 3.80% to R52.94.
Construction group Group Five
[JSE:GBF] garnered 3.54% to R27.49 but retailer Foschini
[JSE:FOS] lost 2.20% to R124.50.