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Platinums, resources gain on China

Johannesburg - The JSE was up slightly at noon on Wednesday with resources and platinums leading the upside on better Chinese economic data out this morning.

The Chinese HSBC flash manufacturing purchasing managers’ index increased to 49.1 in October from 47.9 in September‚ which may indicate that China has seen the worst of the contraction in their manufacturing sector. The HSBC flash figure is however not the final official number for the Chinese manufacturing sector‚ but provides an indication of economic conditions.

At 12:07pm‚ the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was up 0.17% at 36‚741.03; resources and platinums were up 0.36% and 0.34% respectively.

European markets were flat with the London FTSE 100 seen 0.02% weaker at 11:52am local time‚ while in the East the Nikkei 225 ended 0.67% lower.

“The SA market has been flat for much of the day. It is rather dull‚ but dull is good after all the turmoil we have had in the market of late‚” said Wayne McCurrie from Momentum Investments.

“We have seen some small movements in the market today. The local inflation figure this morning was a bit worse than expected‚ but it had no affect on our market. The chance of another rate cut‚ however‚ is now non-existent‚” he said.

“The local platinum sector has been underperforming the all-share index for the last five years‚ tumbling by 70% compared to the all-share index. Platinum counters were way too expensive five years ago‚ and now no one is interested in them‚” he added.

“The rand is relatively weak‚ an indicator of the trials and tribulations SA has had as of late in the mining sector. Foreigners have voted with their feet and have pulled their money out of our market‚” he added.

The rand was trading at R8.8080 to the greenback at noon on Wednesday from R8.7595 on Tuesday.

Rand Merchant Bank said in a note that there had been a string of factors that had added to renewed concern over the global outlook.

“The Spanish economy contracted by 0.4% quarter on quarter in the third quarter of this year‚ highlighting their economic vulnerability. It also increased the likelihood that Spain will miss its budget deficit targets for this year and next. Apart from Spanish woes‚ the release of eurozone consumer confidence data highlighted that European consumers remain under pressure. The euro is facing a lot of bad news which is dragging the rand along with it‚” the bank said.

“The news is not much better across the ocean. The US‚ which has provided some reason to be optimistic over the past few weeks‚ is starting to concern the markets. The worry is fuelled by poor company results‚ which raises questions about the sustainability of the latest round of positive US data releases‚” it said.

 
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Rand - Dollar
18.94
-0.2%
Rand - Pound
23.91
-0.1%
Rand - Euro
20.43
+0.2%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.34
+0.1%
Rand - Yen
0.13
-0.1%
Platinum
910.50
+1.5%
Palladium
1,011.50
+1.0%
Gold
2,220.00
+1.2%
Silver
24.86
+0.9%
Brent Crude
86.09
-0.2%
Top 40
68,346
+1.0%
All Share
74,536
+0.8%
Resource 10
57,251
+2.8%
Industrial 25
103,936
+0.6%
Financial 15
16,502
-0.1%
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