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Johannesburg - The JSE was slightly higher in the early afternoon on Friday‚ with gold miners shedding value after recent gains‚ and declines in retailers after a strong rally on Thursday.
Banking counters were also under pressure‚ with only resources providing some support to the local bourse.
Meanwhile world markets await the release of US nonfarm payrolls numbers at 14:30‚ with a rebound expected in April from the previous month.
At 12:47‚ the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was up 0.13% at 39 134.46 points‚ with the Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] blue-chip index gaining 0.41%.
The gold sector shed 2.98% and general retailers gave back 2.24%. Banks lost 1.56%‚ while resources gained 1.47%
European markets were slightly firmer with the UK’s FTSE 100 index up 0.21% at 12:32.
“Two notable things in the market today are gold and banking counters losing value‚ led down following poor trading updates from Harmony and African Bank‚” said Francois Venter‚ equity dealer at Investec Asset Management.
“Last night the US jobless claims figures came out better than expected and markets are expecting a good nonfarm payroll number out this afternoon as well‚” he said.
Among individual shares on the JSE‚ Anglo American (AGL) was up 1.30% at R221.33 and BHP Billiton (BIL) leapt 3.50% to R255.64‚ while ArcelorMittal (ACL) shed 3.27% to R22.75.
Among gold counters Harmony (HAR) plummeted 7.73% to R39.65 after reporting a 15% decline in gold production to 247 529 ounces in the quarter ended March.
AngloGold Ashanti (ANG) dropped 2.46% to R167.05 and Sibanye (SGL) lost 4.44% to R8.17.
African Bank Investments Limited’s (ABL’s) share price plummeted 15.83% to R24.40 after the unsecured lender said late on Thursday it anticipated its half-year headline earnings per share to end March to fall by 25%-28%.
Capitec (CPI) shed 4.08% to R210.10.
Nedbank (NED) was 2.51% softer at R182.50 after saying on Friday that the group’s net interest income grew 7.3% to R5.121bn in the quarter ended March.
Amongst retailers JD Group (JDG) plunged 6.77% to R30.99‚ The Foschini Group (TFG) dropped 5.38% to R110‚ Lewis (LEW) dived 5.84% to R55.91 and Truworths (TRU) gave back 3.68% to R87.65.
