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Resources resume strong run on JSE

Johannesburg - Resources shares resumed their strong run on the JSE on Thursday morning, with the three big dual-listed commodity giants all again trading at new 52-week highs.

By mid-morning the Resources index was 0.64% higher at 35 209 points, more than 10% higher than the 32 109 points it was on at the beginning of the year.

The index took a breather the previous two days after the copper price dropped back to the lowest level in a month, but as the price steadied so too did mining share prices.

The commodity market was however capped by the stronger dollar, which also rebounded after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen signalled that the US central bank is poised to pursue a path of steady interest rate hikes.  

A stronger dollar makes dollar-denominated commodities more expensive for holders of other currencies, but resources shares currently have a momentum which might continue for some time.

The rest of the JSE was however more subdued on Thursday as the FTSE index in London started the day on a cautious note. The Industrial index, which includes most of the big dual-listed shares which are also listed in London, was only 0.38%% higher at mid-morning. The Financial index lost 0.34%.

The result was that the All-share index at mid-morning was only 0.23% stronger at 53 056 points. The index has already gained more than 7% since the middle of December. The Top 40 index, which is 7.69% higher over the past month, was only 0.30% up.

In early trade Anglo American [JSE:AGL] was on a new intraday 52-week high of R224.00, but the share price lost some momentum and by mid-morning was just below the record of R223.00. At that stage the share was 0.93% higher at R222.49.

In terms of turnover, Anglo was the second busiest share on the JSE with 726 000 shares being traded for R161m.

BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL] was 1.75% firmer on a new 52-week high of R244.80, but traded as high as R245.91.

These share prices are however still well below their all-time highs. In early 2013 Anglo traded as high as R340.63, and BHP Billiton in 2014 stood at R372.65. A year ago, Anglo was as low as R53.50 and BHP Billiton fell to R138.16.

Glencore [JSE:GLN] - which according to financial analysts is in much better shape than a year ago, with much lower debt levels - traded 1.91% higher on a new 52-week high of R53.40. Before Thursday's trade the stock was 195% higher than a year ago, when it reached a low of R17.74. Glencore’s all-time high as a listed company is R66.80 early in 2014.

Naspers [JSE:NPN], by far the biggest share on the JSE, was 0.09% lower at R2 184.88. The share gained more than 10% over the past month, but has been treading water over the past week and gained only 1.22% over the past seven days. Naspers on Wednesday announced that the Capital group, an American private investment firm, acquired an interest of more than 5% in the media group.

Pharmaceutical group Aspen [JSE:APN] performed solidly, trading 1.77% stronger at R301.65. The group gained more than 7% over the previous seven days.

MTN [JSE:MTN], which lost more than 5% over the previous seven days, was 0.41% higher at R126.67.

The top banks were marginally lower. Standard Bank [JSE:SBK] lost 0.28% to R156.43 and FirstRand was 0.40% softer at R52.44.

Peregrine Holdings [JSE:PGR] was the busiest share on the JSE in terms of volume and lost 0.30% to R30.00.

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Rand - Dollar
18.94
-0.2%
Rand - Pound
23.91
-0.1%
Rand - Euro
20.43
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Rand - Aus dollar
12.34
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All Share
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Resource 10
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Financial 15
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