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Johannesburg - After a delay in the opening due to
intermittent connectivity issues, the JSE opened stronger on Wednesday as the
overall market was led higher by resources. Global markets were also firmer.
The JSE said that following corrective action on network
connectivity issues between the exchange and its clients, all markets were
reopened between 10:00 and 10:10.
"We have taken corrective action and are further
investigating the root cause," said chief information officer Riaan van
Wamelen.
By 10:06 local time, the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was
up 0.69%, thanks to a 1.26% jump in resources and a 0.55% increase in platinum
miners. However, gold miners were 0.13% lower.
Banks were 0.62% stronger, financials grew 0.54% and
industrials advanced 0.42%.
The rand was trading at R7.81 to the US dollar, from R7.79
at the JSE's close on Tuesday. Gold was quoted at $1 650.64 a troy ounce from
$1 649.04/oz at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was at $1 589.50/oz,
from $1 575.00/oz at the previous session.
A local trader said that it had been quite a hectic start
after the delays with the JSE's connectivity issues.
He noted that there had been quite a bit of buying recently
for the local bourse. "We have been a bit mixed recently and it has been
the resources and mining stocks that have pulled the market back.
"If you look
at the industrials, retailers, banks and some of the defensive type stocks,
they have actually performed quite well.
"The resources and miners have taken quite a hard knock
in recent times, so we are now seeing some bottom fishing buying in the sector,
although gold shares are still out of favour," he said.
Dow Jones Newswires reported that European equities markets
had been expected to start narrowly mixed on Wednesday, with Spain in the
forefront as the country battles an economic slump and mounting debt.
"Having pushed back to the levels seen at the beginning
of April, the question is now whether markets can regain lost ground or whether
the eurozone crisis is strong enough to drag us back downward," said IG
Index.
Spain succeeded in raising a higher-than-targeted €3.18bn in
12- and 18-month bonds, albeit at a high price.
"Madrid must be breathing a sigh of relief - it has
avoided a catastrophic failed auction for another day," said analyst Kathleen
Brooks at trading site Forex.com.
"It managed to sell 12- and 18-month debt with relative
ease (Tuesday). However, the stronger demand was driven by a sharp increase in
bond yields."
US stock futures are higher after stocks jumped on Tuesday,
staging their biggest gain in a month. This followed after a successful bond
auction in Spain eased investor concerns about Europe's debt issues, and US
companies posted a series of strong quarterly earnings reports that outweighed
mixed US economic data.
"We've had some very robust earnings these past couple
of years and even though the bar was lower (Tuesday), I'm still encouraged that
corporations can continue to meet expectations," said Colleen Supran,
principal at Bingham, Osborn Scarborough in San Francisco.
In London the FTSE100 was last up 12 points.
Asian stock markets rose on Wednesday as positive news from
Europe helped restore risk appetite, while upbeat earnings from the likes of
Intel and Goldman Sachs buoyed major technology stocks and financials across
the region.
The Nikkei closed up 2.14% and the Hang Seng index was last just over 1% higher.
