Gold miners lead the JSE to fresh record
Johannesburg-S.A. (Apr 10) The JSE was at a new intraday high on Thursday morning, continuing its rally for the third consecutive day on upbeat global market sentiment after the minutes of the Federal open market committee meeting showed the central bank has committed itself to a steady reduction in monetary stimulus.
The minutes also indicated that the Fed was in no hurry to raise interest rates, which boosted global markets and increased positive sentiment towards emerging markets.
US equities rallied more than 1% after the release of the dovish March minutes. However, Asian markets were mixed after disappointing Chinese March trade data weighed on sentiment and signalled a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.
March trade numbers surprised to the downside, with exports down 6.6% year on year, after a decline of 1.6% in the January to February period.
At 9.53am, the all share index was 0.79% higher at 48,672.26 points, with the top 40 index up 0.81%.
The gold index surged 1.35% and platinums were up 0.46% on firmer commodity prices. Industrials added 1.20%.
Barclays Research said in a morning note that it expected local February mining production numbers, due for release at 11.30am on Thursday, to contract marginally.
"The February mining data are likely to generate a lot of attention as markets try to understand the effect of the continuing strike in the platinum sector on growth, particularly given the size of the platinum mining industry," the bank said.
Platinum mining makes up about 25% of all mining activity in South Africa.
Local February manufacturing production numbers, due for release at 1pm, were likely to increase slightly, Barclays said.
"Manufacturing output saw a somewhat stronger than expected start to the year, raising hopes that the weak rand was providing a fillip to the sector," the bank said.
Among individual shares on the JSE, gold miner Harmony climbed 2.09% and smaller player Sibanye added 3.13% to R25.38. Northam Platinum gained 1.17% and Aquarius surged 4.83% to R6.29 after recent declines.
