Johannesburg – The JSE opened flat on Thursday morning‚ with retailers making gains‚ while all the mining indices were in the red due to investor concerns that the shaft closure announcement by Amplats and subsequent job losses could lead to further pressure on the industry.
Amplats miners went on strike after the restructuring news‚ but returned to work on Wednesday night‚ the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Thursday.
Globally investors are waiting for Friday morning’s Chinese fourth quarter GDP print and December’s monthly data set‚ which will provide market direction.
At 9:37‚ the All Share [JSE:J203] index was flat (-0.09%) at 39 844.71 points‚ with retailers adding 0.45%‚ while gold counters and platinums gave back 0.54% and 0.45% respectively. Resources lost 0.37%.
In the East the Nikkei 225 closed 0.48% lower and the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index was trading 0.20% softer at 9.21 local time.
International data has been relatively unexciting‚ Rand Merchant Bank said in a morning note.
“US inflation dropped to 1.7% year on year in December‚ safely below the 2% level that leads everyone to worry. Fed hawks are not impressed and continue their media blitz warning about the dangers of quantitative easing. US industrial production jumped a decent 0.3% in the month‚ which was expected‚” RMB said.
Among individual shares on the JSE‚ Anglo American (AGL) shed 1.26% to close at R266.38.
Anglo Platinum (AMS) dipped by 1.17% to R452.82 and Aquarius (AQP) slumped 4.75% to R9.83.
Anglogold Ashanti (ANG) dropped 1.34% to R257.49.
ArcelorMittal (ACL) gave back 2.70% to R36.08 and Coal of Africa (CZA) shed 6.14% to R2.75.