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Johannesburg - Most of the interest on the JSE on Monday morning was in the platinum sector after news that Anglo American [JSE:AGL] wants to sell some of its platinum mines.
Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS] (Amplats), the Anglo subsidiary which owns most of these assets, was one of the top performers on Monday. By lunchtime it traded 4% higher on R475.57.
Last week the platinum sector lost more than 2%, but all the major platinum shares gained on Monday, although not as much as Amplats.
The strong performance of the platinum sector, as well as the gold sector - which improved by 1.75% on the back of a stronger gold price due to political uncertainty in the Ukraine - helped the resources sector.
This sector was virtually unchanged on Monday in a market in which all the major indices continued their slide that started on Thursday last week.
By midday on Monday the All-share index was another 0.39% lower at 51 492 points and the Top 40 index lost 0.47% to 46 341.
Analysts said investors are still uncertain about valuations after the market's strong run at the beginning of last week.
The uncertainty increased with the expectation that last week’s local interest rate hike of 0.25% will not be the last.
This caused concern about interest rate hikes' influence on the future earnings of companies trading at high price to earnings ratios.
It is, however, too early to tell if the upward momentum of the market has come to an end.
On Monday the attention was on platinum when Amplats said it would sell its Union mine in Limpopo, its Rustenburg operations and its Pandora joint venture operation.
Analysts expect it could cut Amplats’ staff complement by as much as 20 000, which could lead to massive cost savings.
Besides the sharp rise in the Amplats share price, Impala [JSE:IMP] traded 0.47% higher at R104.60 and Lonmin [JSE:LON] was 1.19% stronger at R41.50.
Amplats said there are parties interested in platinum assets and mines are still valuable market assets, which could give such parties an opportunity to enter the market.
Gold producer Sibanye Gold [JSE:SGL] is generally regarded as a buyer of these assets and its share price increased by 1.67% to R28.62 - much more than the other major gold producers.
Sibanye CEO Niel Froneman has already indicated that the company is interested in platinum and that it will be able to raise R1bn to finance such transactions.
The question remains whether Sibanye is prepared to pay for these assets.
The share price of Anglo American did not react much to the proposed selling of its platinum assets and was only 0.37% higher at R280.41.
BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL] and Glencore [JSE:GLN] were trading below the 52-week highs set last week. BHP Billiton lost 0.18% to R364.87 and Glencore traded 0.42% higher at R64.92.
Among gold shares Gold Fields increased by 1.07% to R42.40 and Harmony [JSE:HAR] was 0.63% higher at R35.21.
- Fin24
Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS] (Amplats), the Anglo subsidiary which owns most of these assets, was one of the top performers on Monday. By lunchtime it traded 4% higher on R475.57.
Last week the platinum sector lost more than 2%, but all the major platinum shares gained on Monday, although not as much as Amplats.
The strong performance of the platinum sector, as well as the gold sector - which improved by 1.75% on the back of a stronger gold price due to political uncertainty in the Ukraine - helped the resources sector.
This sector was virtually unchanged on Monday in a market in which all the major indices continued their slide that started on Thursday last week.
By midday on Monday the All-share index was another 0.39% lower at 51 492 points and the Top 40 index lost 0.47% to 46 341.
Analysts said investors are still uncertain about valuations after the market's strong run at the beginning of last week.
The uncertainty increased with the expectation that last week’s local interest rate hike of 0.25% will not be the last.
This caused concern about interest rate hikes' influence on the future earnings of companies trading at high price to earnings ratios.
It is, however, too early to tell if the upward momentum of the market has come to an end.
On Monday the attention was on platinum when Amplats said it would sell its Union mine in Limpopo, its Rustenburg operations and its Pandora joint venture operation.
Analysts expect it could cut Amplats’ staff complement by as much as 20 000, which could lead to massive cost savings.
Besides the sharp rise in the Amplats share price, Impala [JSE:IMP] traded 0.47% higher at R104.60 and Lonmin [JSE:LON] was 1.19% stronger at R41.50.
Amplats said there are parties interested in platinum assets and mines are still valuable market assets, which could give such parties an opportunity to enter the market.
Gold producer Sibanye Gold [JSE:SGL] is generally regarded as a buyer of these assets and its share price increased by 1.67% to R28.62 - much more than the other major gold producers.
Sibanye CEO Niel Froneman has already indicated that the company is interested in platinum and that it will be able to raise R1bn to finance such transactions.
The question remains whether Sibanye is prepared to pay for these assets.
The share price of Anglo American did not react much to the proposed selling of its platinum assets and was only 0.37% higher at R280.41.
BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL] and Glencore [JSE:GLN] were trading below the 52-week highs set last week. BHP Billiton lost 0.18% to R364.87 and Glencore traded 0.42% higher at R64.92.
Among gold shares Gold Fields increased by 1.07% to R42.40 and Harmony [JSE:HAR] was 0.63% higher at R35.21.
- Fin24
