Johannesburg - The JSE was flat on Wednesday
morning on the back of a mixed session in key Asian markets with the strong
local currency limiting moves on the bourse, an equities trader said.
At 09:18 the JSE all share index had collected 0.42%, with resources up
0.73% and platinum miners edging up 0.61%, but gold counters weakened 0.55%.
Banks put on 0.82%, financials edged 0.25% higher and industrials inched
up 0.18%.
The rand was bid at 7.39 to the dollar from 7.38 when the JSE closed on
Tuesday. Gold was quoted at $1 013.95 a troy ounce from $1 015.90/oz
just after the JSE's last close, and platinum was at $1 334/oz, from
$1 329.50/oz at its previous close.
"We had a flat open this morning. Eastern markets were mixed. I think
the market is trying to stabilise around the 25 000-26 000 level. There are
no fireworks, it's looking lacklustre. Volumes were low yesterday, people
don't know what to make of this market."
"The resources are keeping us afloat. The rand strengthened yesterday
after interest rates were left unchanged and that put pressure on the
bourse. The strong rand is holding us back."
"We have the public holiday tomorrow, so there isn't going to be a lot
of movement. There is no data that will move the market into direction. We
do have the PPI locally, but those figures will not have direction for the
market," he said.
"At the moment it looks like Europe will open flat to negative. It looks
like we will hover around these levels for the day," he concluded.
International markets
Dow Jones Newswires reports all three major stock indices pushed back up
to near their highest closes in roughly a year as continued weakness in the
dollar sparked more broad buying in Alcoa, Caterpillar, Peabody Energy and a
host of other global energy, material and industrial companies.
After a brief respite in two of the past three sessions, stocks pushed
higher on Tuesday, thanks to more broad buying. Part of the catalyst has
been improving global economic sentiment, which has been coupled with a
flood out of safer assets, including the US currency.
"The trade that has been working is a weaker dollar, which allows
commodities to go up and the market to go up and that has just remained in
tack," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist with Prudential Financial.
"It
doesn't mean there aren't fundamentals behind the trade, but the weaker
dollar is the catalyst."
Overall, the DJIA closed up 51.01 points, or 0.52%, to 9829.87, marking
its 10th gain in 13 sessions and its highest close since October 6.
The S&P 500 increased 7.00, or 0.66%, to 1071.66, while the Nasdaq
Composite gained 8.26, or 0.39%, to 2146.30. The S&P ended at its highest
point since October 3, and the Nasdaq closed at its highest level since
September 26.
Asian share markets are mixed on Wednesday with Wall Street's rise and
buoyant commodity prices supporting some markets, while others were damped
by the lacklustre performance of Chinese shares.
In Hong Kong, the Hong Seng was last down 0.4%.
European stock markets are likely to open a bit higher overall as
investors test the waters ahead of the Fed's announcement after the close.
- I-Net Bridge