Related Articles
Top Stories
May 27 2012 11:21
There's a price war raging between South Africa's cellphone networks after Cell C lowered the rates of its prepaid calls by more than 34%.
May 28 2012 07:53
The City of Cape Town has spent R175m running the Myciti bus service since the Soccer World Cup compared to an income of R35m, a report says.
May 27 2012 13:09
The oversupply of golf estates has claimed another victim.
Johannesburg - The JSE turned around during the course of the morning and was around a quarter of a percentage point firmer
by midday, led higher by industrials and a marginal improvement in resources. Retailers were also a strong feature.
Shortly before noon, the JSE all share index was up 0.22%, with industrials 0.59% firmer and resources 0.13% higher. Gold miners were 0.44% lower and platinum miners were off 0.91%. Banks were off 0.41% and financials eased 0.34%.
The rand was bid at R7.43 to the dollar, from R7.38 at the JSE's close on Wednesday. Gold was quoted at $1 108.73 a troy ounce from $1 119.60/oz at the JSE's last close. Platinum was at $1 591/oz from $1 588.60/oz at the
JSE's last close.
"The market is a bit of a mixed bag. Resources are slightly higher and retailers are strong. Overall the market is up, but not dramatically so," said a local trader.
He added that the slightly weaker rand is attracting buying in the likes of Anglos, Billiton and Richemont, but here are some areas of the market where there is some consolidation after the recent strong run.
"We have seen a pause in the banking stocks, which have had a good run in recent days. The appetite for risk still looks positive, but I won't be surprised to see some consolidation," he said.
Dow Jones Newswires reported European stocks were flat and in London the FTSE 100 was also flat, coming off lows. The index nudged just a tad higher after the BOE's inflation expectations survey, which showed UK public expectations for the year edging up in February.
Economic data are thin on the ground, with the US weekly jobless claims at 13:30 GMT, which often influences the direction of indexes.
Asian stock markets ended mixed on Thursday, with several markets paring gains as resource stocks fell after Chinese economic data sparked fresh worries of further tightening measures from Beijing.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average of 225 companies advanced 1.0% to 10,664.95 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index inched up 0.1%. Among Chinese stock benchmarks, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.1%, giving up most of its early gains, while the Shenzhen Composite index slid 0.1%.
- I-Net Bridge