Flat JSE eyes offshore data

The JSE has opened flat, but it has retained a positive bias thanks to the weaker rand, which lifted resources counters.

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The JSE opened flat on Friday, but it has retained a positive bias thanks to the weaker rand, which lifted resources counters. There was a lack of direction and investors did not want to commit ahead of the weekend, a trader said.

By 09:19 local time, the JSE all-share index was up a slight 0.04%, with gold miners gaining 0.25% and resources eking out a 0.06% gain. Banks lost 0.23% and financials were down 0.12%. Platinum miners (-0.01%), industrials (0.07%) and resources (0.06%) were all little changed.

The rand was bid at 6.84 to the dollar from 6.85 at the JSE's close on Thursday. Gold was quoted at US$1,477.50 a troy ounce from US$1,468.64/oz at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was at $1,791.50/oz, from $1,779.00/oz previously.

Activity was on the resources side in morning trade, helped by the rand, the trader said. The market was digesting economic data from the US and China, the trader said.

Dow Jones Newswires reported that Asian stock markets were mostly lower on Friday, as Chinese data showing still-strong inflationary pressures renewed worries about further tightening measures from Beijing.

“The market is concerned the central bank may launch new measures over the weekend even though the consumer price index (CPI) data is in-line with expectations,” said Wang Liemin, an analyst at Guosen Securities in Shanghai.

Those concerns were mirrored regionally, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average down 0.7%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 off 0.5%, China's Shanghai Composite Index down 0.5% and South Korea's Kospi Composite down 0.4%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index also fell 0.4%, while India's Sensex was 1.0% lower.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 13 points in screen trade.

China's March CPI rose 5.4% from a year earlier, above the 4.9% rise in February, and marked the fastest inflation rate since July 2008. Economists had expected a 5.3% rise.

On the JSE, Anglo American (AGL) rose 35 cents to 352.84 rand and BHP Billiton (BIL) added 22 cents to 282.62 rand. But Sasol (SOL) fell 49 cents to 379.01 rand.

Among gold counters, DRDGold (DRD) firmed eight cents or 2.22% to 3.68 rand.

Among platinum stocks, Northam Platinum (NHM) dropped 1.60 rand or 3.54% to 43.65 rand.

In the industrial sector, AECI (AFE) slipped 2.20 rand or 2.61% to 82.10 rand.

Mondi (MND) picked up 25 cents to 63.25 rand. The paper and pulp group on Friday said it had signed a new EUR750 million, five-year revolving multicurrency credit facility to refinance its existing EUR1.55 billion credit facility that was due to mature in June 2012.

This completes the refinancing of its EUR1.55 billion facility that was partially refinanced via Mondi's inaugural EUR500 million seven-year euro bond in March 2010, the company said on Friday.

The facility was self-arranged with a club of 10 relationship banks. The mandated lead arrangers are: Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Citi, Commerzbank AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Erste Group Bank AG, Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, The Royal Bank of Scotland plc and UniCredit.

Telecommunications company Telkom (TKG) lost 60 cents or 1.60% to 36.97 rand.

Construction company Stefanutti Stocks (SSK) edged down 38 cents or 3.17% to 11.62 rand.

Media giant Naspers (NPN) collected 6.99 rand or 1.94% to 367.70 rand. - I-Net Bridge

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/flat-jse-eyes-offshore-data-1.1057267

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