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Johannesburg - The JSE was remarkably resilient on Thursday morning, with most indices remaining in the black although the upbeat tone on world markets from earlier in the week has largely evaporated as a result of a lack of clear progress on the Greek debt crisis.
Global markets have been rallying since Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras handed over Greek proposals at the start of the week, but optimism is vanishing quickly as a result of a lack of clear progress in negotiations.
But by midday on Thursday the All-share index was higher for the fourth consecutive day and traded 0.33% higher at 52 957, which means the index gained more than 3% since Monday. The Top 40 index was 0.27% higher at 46 360 points.
The market was again driven by the Financial index, which is on a strong recovery path from a hopelessly oversold position. The index gained another 0.86% to 16 788 points on Thursday morning, making it more than 4% higher than last Thursday, when it hit a low of 16 128 points.
The big heavyweights on the JSE continued their resilience and the Industrial index was another 0.45% higher, but the Resources index fell prey to profit-taking and lost 1.26%.
Markets are known for discounting possible good news in advance and when this does not materialise, there is often a negative reaction. The resilient performance of the JSE owes much to technical factors as most sectors were oversold.
Talks on the Greek debt crisis are still continuing, but Greek negotiators' tone has changed dramatically since the reconciliatory mood at the beginning of the week.
Tsipiras said on Wednesday that the country’s debtors, including the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, are making new demands. “This position may hide two things: either they do not want an agreement or they are serving specific interests in Greece."
Some sources said the plans were 90% finalised, but the two sides have been unable to agree a complete overhaul, with taxes and pensions a key sticking point.
Telkom [JSE:TKG] is currently one of the shares on a strong recovery run after being oversold. By Thursday midday the share gained another 7.12% to R63.20. It is almost 19% higher than last Friday’s close, when the stock traded at R53.70.
Sasol [JSE:SOL] also made big strides on Thursday morning and traded 1.91% higher at R447.38, which means that the share gained 4.97% over the past seven days.
Naspers [JSE:NPN] also continued its upward trend on Thursday and traded 0.12% higher at R1 947.35. The share is not far off its closing high of R1 980 reached earlier this year.
On Wednesday Naspers was supported by a 3% rise in the share price of Tencent, the Chinese internet giant in which it holds a 34% stake. However, Tencent lost ground on Thursday and at midday was 1.04% lower.
FirstRand [JSE:FSR] was one of the busiest shares on the JSE on Thursday morning in terms of volume and value, and more than 4.5 million shares were sold. The share price gained another 1.13% to R54.15 and is now 4.76% higher over the past seven days.
Almost all the recent losses have been regained as the share is now only 1.4% lower over the past 30 days.
More than 5 million Old Mutual [JSE:OML] shares were sold, but the share price was only 0.05% higher at R40.18.
The renewed interest in the retail sector continued on Thursday morning. Woolworths [JSE:WHL] was a favourite among investors and 2.33 million shares were traded for R236.7m. The share price was 2.44% higher at R100.90 and is now 4.34% higher over the past seven days.
In the resources sector BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL] lost 1.93% to R258.55.
