The JSE was higher at midday on Monday as it piggybacked on the positive tone on world markets.
Resource stocks did the heavy lifting‚ thanks to relatively higher commodity prices and corporate earnings‚ which more than offset the stronger rand environment.
The all share was up 0.79% to 59 181.90 points at lunchtime‚ as big diversified resource shares gained 2.26%.
Banks rallied to a record high‚ boosted by optimism of an economic turnaround under President Cyril Ramaphosa‚ who is perceived as liklely to pursue business-friendly policies.
Pockets of strength were in play in the industrial sector‚ though the stronger rand held back some of the bigger rand hedges.
The rand pushed to an intraday best level of R11.5069 to the dollar‚ before subsequently losing a bit of that momentum.
Europe’s leading markets were higher at midday‚ following a positive session in Asia‚ where Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.19%.
Momentum Securities analysts said the direction of global risk assets hinged largely on US government bond yields at the moment. The yield on the benchmark US 10-year note was last seen at 2.8624%‚ somewhat lower than last week’s highs of around 2.95%‚ which represented its highest point in four years.
Increasing bonds yields tend to detract from the allure of equities in the short term.
Sasol was up 4.03% to R410.39‚ after the petrochemical company earlier reported a 17% rise in first-half headline earnings per share to R17.67.
BHP was up 1.79% to R249.95‚ Anglo American 3.38% to R296.92‚ Exxaro Resources 4.01% to R147.17 and Assore 5.04% to R331.10.
FirstRand was up 1.01% to R76.48 and Standard Bank 1.12% to R222.08. Liberty gained 1.95% to R135.53 and Coronation Fund Managers 1.64% to R80.70.
Consumer goods group AVI rose 1.98% to R120.30 and Pioneer Foods 1.53% to R127.60.
Steinhoff added 6.82% to R5.64 and Massmart 3.05% to R163.44‚ bringing the latter’s cumulative gains to 19% so far in February.
Aspen rose 1.82% to R275.57 and Netcare 1.95% to R26.20‚ despite the stronger rand.
Telkom gained 1.83% to R52.75 and Blue Label Telecoms 4.15% to R13.29.
Construction group Raubex was up 1.18% to R22.36 and Group Five leapt 5.56% to R11.20.
By: Andries Mahlangu – BusinessLIVE
Source: TMG Digital.
