Johannesburg - The JSE struggled along on Tuesday, with all the major indices slightly lower amid a lack of interest, which was reflected in lower than usual volumes while investors are still on holiday.
By midday, the All-share index was 0.40% lower at 50 984 points, after losing 0.26% on Monday. The Top 40 index traded 0.41% stronger at 46 055 points, after closing only 0.24% softer on Monday.
It appears that the market is driven by traders who use the opportunity to pick up bargains or take profits on shares that have made a strong run recently.
The best example of this is in the resources sector, which was only 0.28% lower by midday, but there were some strong moves among individual shares.
The biggest mover was ArcelorMittal [JSE:ACL], which was 10.31% softer at lunchtime after gaining more than 51% over the previous seven days.
Anglo American [JSE:AGL], which gained more than 20% in the JSE’s mini-run last week, was down for the second consecutive day. It traded 2.6% lower at R69.93 after losing 3.1% on Monday, but in morning trade the share was still 17.45% higher than the past seven days.
Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS], which was the biggest loser among the blue chips on Monday when it lost more than 5%, stabilised on Tuesday morning and was only 0.03% lower on R189.63.
Glencore [JSE:GLN], which did not gain as much as the other commodity conglomerates in the mini-run in the resources sector last week, made up lost ground by gaining 4.74% to R20.65.
The industrial sector was the biggest loser on Tuesday, trading 0.56% lower despite the European markets being higher by midday. The index was 0.56% weaker by lunchtime.
The biggest loser in the sector on Tuesday morning was Remgro [JSE:REM], which traded 3.34% lower at R250.68. The share was at one stage as low as R246.39. The move on Tuesday wiped out all the profits for the year as the share was only 2.20% higher for the year to date before Tuesday’s trading.
Naspers [JSE:NPN] lost 0.95% to R2 110.50. It appears that every move up and down is used by traders to accumulate or sell shares. Before Tuesday’s trade, the share was only 0.02% higher over the past seven days despite bigger moves on individual days.
Richemont [JSE:CFR] was 0.61% higher at R112.25 and Sasol [JSE:SOL] moved only 0.25% to R424.31. Bidvest [JSE:BVT] lost 1.62% to R331.40, but Nampak [JSE:NPK] was 1.72% higher at R25.43.