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Johannesburg - The consolidation on the JSE continued on Wednesday for the third day in a row after last week's strong recovery run.
The All share-index is moving closer to the important physiological level of 50 000 points as most of the major indices lost ground again on Wednesday morning.
Technical analysts said the overall technical longer term picture still looks good, but is deteriorating somewhat as profit taking continued. By midday on Wednesday, the All share-index was another 0.48% lower on 50 131 and the Top 40-index lost 0.60% to 44 533 points.
The two biggest indices, the Industrial index and the Resources index, were both lower. The Industrial index lost 0.62% and the Resources index 0.72%, with both indices now approaching important resistance levels.
The local market is currently not in line with world markets, with Wall Street on new record levels. The Dow Jones index and the Standard and Poor's 500 index both closed on new records with the S&P reaching a third record in as many sessions.
American investors reacted on good economic news from the US and Germany. US homebuilder confidence rose by four points to 58, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, while investor confidence in Germany jumped back into positive territory in November after reaching a 22-month low in October, according to the ZEW economic institute.
The local market could be influenced somewhat by the stronger rand which is moving back towards R11.00/$ and is now on the highest level in two weeks against the US currency.
A stronger rand is bad news for the multi-listed companies which earn a major part of their earnings abroad and receive less in rand when the currency is strong.
One of those shares is Naspers [JSE:NPN], which fell back for the third day in a row after a strong run last week on the back of significant acquisitions. The technology giant traded at R1 454.50, which is 2.64% lower than the day before.
Of the other heavyweights in the industrial sector SABMiller [JSE:SAB] lost 0.58% to R603.84, but British American Tobacco [JSE:BTI] was 0.55% stronger on R641.52.
Tiger Brands [JSE:TBS], which is one of the high flyers of the last few weeks, set another 52-week high on Wednesday when it gained 0.47% to R379.30. The share price has gained 19.7% over the last month.
South Africa's biggest producer of consumer goods announced on Wednesday it would take another write-off charge at its money-losing Nigerian unit, as it posted an 11% increase in full-year profit.
Tiger Brands, which makes pasta, energy drinks and breakfast cereal, wrote off R105m of certain factory assets of Dangote Flour Mills following a review of their utilisation levels. The impairment comes within a year of an R849m write-down of the same business.
Amongst the resources shares the producers of iron ore are again under pressure with Kumba [JSE:KIO], Assore [JSE:ASR] and Exxaro [JSE:EXX] all trading at 52-week lows. Kumba lost 3.37% to R250.26 and Assore was 3.9% lower on R176.35. Exxaro, which owns a stake in Kumba, lost 2.62% to R112.01.
With the gold price improving somewhat investors are increasingly seeing opportunities in the gold sector with share prices at historic lows. Gold Fields [JSE:GFI] improved with 4.35% to R48.00 and Anglogold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] traded 3.9% higher on R176.35, on the back of a firmer gold price - gold increased with 2.95% by midday on Wednesday.
Harmony [JSE:HAR] was 2.09% stronger on R19.57.
The All share-index is moving closer to the important physiological level of 50 000 points as most of the major indices lost ground again on Wednesday morning.
Technical analysts said the overall technical longer term picture still looks good, but is deteriorating somewhat as profit taking continued. By midday on Wednesday, the All share-index was another 0.48% lower on 50 131 and the Top 40-index lost 0.60% to 44 533 points.
The two biggest indices, the Industrial index and the Resources index, were both lower. The Industrial index lost 0.62% and the Resources index 0.72%, with both indices now approaching important resistance levels.
The local market is currently not in line with world markets, with Wall Street on new record levels. The Dow Jones index and the Standard and Poor's 500 index both closed on new records with the S&P reaching a third record in as many sessions.
American investors reacted on good economic news from the US and Germany. US homebuilder confidence rose by four points to 58, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, while investor confidence in Germany jumped back into positive territory in November after reaching a 22-month low in October, according to the ZEW economic institute.
The local market could be influenced somewhat by the stronger rand which is moving back towards R11.00/$ and is now on the highest level in two weeks against the US currency.
A stronger rand is bad news for the multi-listed companies which earn a major part of their earnings abroad and receive less in rand when the currency is strong.
One of those shares is Naspers [JSE:NPN], which fell back for the third day in a row after a strong run last week on the back of significant acquisitions. The technology giant traded at R1 454.50, which is 2.64% lower than the day before.
Of the other heavyweights in the industrial sector SABMiller [JSE:SAB] lost 0.58% to R603.84, but British American Tobacco [JSE:BTI] was 0.55% stronger on R641.52.
Tiger Brands [JSE:TBS], which is one of the high flyers of the last few weeks, set another 52-week high on Wednesday when it gained 0.47% to R379.30. The share price has gained 19.7% over the last month.
South Africa's biggest producer of consumer goods announced on Wednesday it would take another write-off charge at its money-losing Nigerian unit, as it posted an 11% increase in full-year profit.
Tiger Brands, which makes pasta, energy drinks and breakfast cereal, wrote off R105m of certain factory assets of Dangote Flour Mills following a review of their utilisation levels. The impairment comes within a year of an R849m write-down of the same business.
Amongst the resources shares the producers of iron ore are again under pressure with Kumba [JSE:KIO], Assore [JSE:ASR] and Exxaro [JSE:EXX] all trading at 52-week lows. Kumba lost 3.37% to R250.26 and Assore was 3.9% lower on R176.35. Exxaro, which owns a stake in Kumba, lost 2.62% to R112.01.
With the gold price improving somewhat investors are increasingly seeing opportunities in the gold sector with share prices at historic lows. Gold Fields [JSE:GFI] improved with 4.35% to R48.00 and Anglogold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] traded 3.9% higher on R176.35, on the back of a firmer gold price - gold increased with 2.95% by midday on Wednesday.
Harmony [JSE:HAR] was 2.09% stronger on R19.57.
