Resource shares pushed the JSE’s All-share index to yet another record on Wednesday morning.
By midday the initial momentum was lost and the major indices moved sideways, but by then the All-share index was well on its way to another milestone – 51 000.
Activities on Wednesday morning were again dominated by the big shares, but this time stocks like Naspers and SABMiller gave a mixed performance, while major resource stocks such as Anglo American, Glencore and BHP Billiton all moved higher.
By midday the All-share index was 0.19% higher than Tuesday night’s record close of 50 834, and the Top 40 index traded 0.25% higher at 44 844.
The Industrial index was only marginally higher at 59 610, but the Resource 10 index improved by 0.71% to 56 442.
Financial shares were lower and the gold index unchanged.
Resource shares were also supported by the weaker rand, which traded at R10 to the dollar on Tuesday. This was due to concerns about the South African economy, and fears that weak economic indicators could force the international credit rating agencies to review the country’s international ratings downward to levels where the local market will no longer be an attractive destination for foreign capital inflows.
Tuesday’s bad news was that manufacturing production was 1.5% lower than the same month last year, while business confidence levels were still very low.
There will be no major international economic data this week to support the market, which was the reason why Wall Street mainly moved sideways on Tuesday with low trading volumes.
SABMiller and Naspers, which pushed the JSE to new records on Tuesday night, were again the busiest shares in terms of value on Wednesday morning.
SABMiller, which gained more than 5% on Tuesday, was however 0.38% lower at R613. Naspers improved another 1.37% to R1 260.
Another busy share, MTN, lost 0.79% to R233.25.
Glencore was the busiest resource share on Wednesday morning and traded 0.96% higher at R233.25.
Last Friday the company announced a financing deal for revolving credit of $15.3bn.
The two other diversified resource giants, Anglo American and BHP Billiton, both gained on the previous day.
Anglo rose 1.40% to R263.00, and BHP Billiton improved by 0.65% to R339.80.
The star performer in the resource sector is still Sasol, which reached yet another record of R615.93 which is 0.22% higher than Tuesday’s record.
There is still a great deal of interest in platinum shares and Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum were both among Wednesday morning’s busiest shares, despite the fact that there seems to be no clear solution to the crippling strike at their Rustenburg mines.
By midday Amplats was 0.49% higher at R470.02 and Implats, which said on Tuesday that it has no more room for a better offer for striking workers, gained 1.81% to R113.01.
It seems some investors think these two groups will be better off without the high cost mines in the Rustenburg area.
Lonmin, which has no platinum interests outside the Rustenburg area, was 0.64% lower at R43.50 and has lost 16.5% of its value over the past 90 days.
Analysts warned that the company will not be able to continue without another capital injection.