Johannesburg - The JSE opened flat on Monday morning‚ with gold miners leading the downside‚ continuing their downward bias‚ while platinum shares showed some gains after recent losses.
At 9:35 the All Share [JSE:J203] index had lost 0.10% to 40 640.18 points‚ with the gold index off 1.28%‚ while the platinum index added 0.34%.
Elsewhere‚ Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 2.09% higher on a weaker yen after Japan escaped direct censure when finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 (G-20) industrialised and developing countries issued a weekend statement on currency manipulation.
"Japan's policies escaped direct criticism and the market saw it as a green light to maintain selling pressure on the yen‚" Sue Trinh‚ senior currency strategist at Royal Bank of Canada‚ said in a note to clients.
In its closing statement‚ the G-20 agreed not to target exchange rates for competitive purposes and to move towards market-driven currency rates.
Locally‚ the market is awaiting the January consumer price index (CPI) release on Wednesday‚ with US housing starts data and minutes of the last US Federal Reserve policy meeting due the same day.
On Thursday the US releases CPI figures‚ initial jobless claims and existing home sales‚ data that should provide more direction to markets including SA’s.
On the JSE‚ Anglo American (AGL) was unchanged at R280.50. On Friday Anglo posted a loss of $1.49bn for the year ended December‚ compared with a $6bn profit a year earlier.
On the platinum side Lonmin (LON) added 1.49% to R51.00‚ while Aquarius (AQP) surged 7.22% to R9.65.
AngloGold Ashanti (ANG) added 1.03% to R239.01‚ while Gold Fields (GFI) losr 1.93% to R83.74 and Harmony (HAR) gave back 0.70% to R60.72
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