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Johannesburg - The JSE was virtually unchanged at midday on Thursday ahead of the Easter weekend. A global risk-off environment has encouraged investors to turn to safe-haven investments as ongoing bail-out issues in Cyprus and the political uncertainty in Italy continued to weigh on global sentiment.
At 11:51 the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was flat (0.02%) at 39‚891.16 points‚ with the blue-chip Top 40 (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] index also stagnant (-0.01%).
The platinum and gold counters were up slightly by 0.78% and 0.35% respectively‚ while banks gave back 0.76%.
Although local sentiment has been buoyed following outcomes from the Brics group of emerging markets summit‚ a failure to resolve fundamental economic concerns has meant that investors have adopted a wait and see approach. On Wednesday leaders of the Brics group announced they had agreed to set up a development bank‚ but were shy when it came to providing details on its size or structure.
On the European front‚ both the FTSE100 index and the Paris CAC 40 Index were holding steady at noon.
Earlier in the day Cypriot banks reopened for the first time in almost two weeks. Fearing a huge outflow of deposits‚ strict capital controls have been introduced and residents will only be able to withdraw a maximum of €300 in cash per day. The Cyprus stock market will‚ however‚ remain closed until next week.
For several markets across the region — including Australia and Hong Kong — Thursday marks the end of the quarter ahead of the Good Friday holiday.
Among individual shares on the JSE‚ Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium (EHS) surged as much 80% on Thursday after the Russian holding company‚ EVRAZ plc‚ said it planned sell its 85% stake in the JSE-listed company for $320m in cash to a black economic empowerment consortium. At 12:26 the share was up 73.01% at R23.01.
The platinum counters were a mixed bag with Amplats (AMS) and Impala Platinum (IMP) up 0.74% to R389.75 and 1.41% to R136.40 respectively‚ while others such as Lonmin (LON) and Jubilee (JBL) gave up 0.89% to R41.40 and 0.88% to R1.13 respectively.
Harmony Gold (HAR) gained 1.55% to R59.59.
ArcelorMittal (ACL) was up 1.16% at R28.79.
Industrials fared well‚ with Barloworld (BAW) and Bidvest (BVT) gaining 0.87% to R95.32 and 0.88% to R244.04 respectively.
Paper and pulp manufacturer Sappi (SAP) was down 1.67% to R28.81.
In retailers‚ The Foschini Group (TFG) fared best‚ up 1.32% to R112.82.
South African markets will be closed on Friday and Monday for public holidays.
