Wall Street helps lift JSE

THE JSE ended decidedly firmer yesterday, boosted in the main by the positive sentiment on Wall Street, which shrugged off disappointing consumer confidence numbers. On the local corporate data front, Adcock Ingram slumped nearly 8% after SA’s second-biggest pharmaceutical group posted weaker interim earnings.

At 5pm, the JSE all-share index was up 1,02% to 33 440,20 points, with resources adding 1,55%, platinums rallying 1,73% and gold counters gaining 0,98%.

Financials gained 1,27%, banking stocks jumped 1,97% and industrials lifted 0,56%.

Devin Shutte of Newstrading said: “The resumption of trade on Wall Street following the public holiday brought some spark into our markets in late trade, with euro-zone debt concerns receding into the background, at least temporarily.”

Ian Cruickshanks of Nedbank Capital said: “The markets are in a wait-and-see mode and that will continue for a while until some sort of a solution to the euro-zone crisis is found.”

On the JSE‚ Anglo American (AGL) was up R3,60, or 1,36%, to R268,90, BHP Billiton (BIL) gained R3,83, or 1,7%, to R229,40 and Sasol (SOL) gained R6,42, or 1,79%, to R365,37. AngloGold Ashanti (ANG) gained R2,56 to R302,54, Gold Fields (GFI) lifted R1,16, or 1,06%, to R110,83 and Harmony Gold Mining (HAR) was up R1,06, or 1,31%, to R82,25.

Anglo American Platinum (AMS) rose R7, or 1,45%, to R489 and Impala Platinum (IMP) rallied R3,08, or 2,24%, to R140,49. Among other miners, Exxaro (EXX) lifted R4,37, or 2,35%, to R190,42.

In industrials, Barloworld (BAW) gained R1,75, or 2,11%, to R84,75 and Richemont lifted R1,40, or 2,87%, to R50,20.

In banking stocks and financials, Standard Bank (SBK) was up R2,56, or 2,27%, to R115,56, FirstRand (FSR) jumped 59c, or 2,36%, to R25,56 and Investec (INP) gained R1,16, or 2,66%, to R44,69. Adcock Ingram (AIP) shed R5, or 7,91%, to R58,20.

Near-dated futures gained ground yesterday on the release of manufacturing and home price data in the US and improved sentiment on Greece.

Near-dated futures lifted by 0,8%, or 236 points, to 29 566. The total number of contracts that exchanged hands was 35 677 from 24 648 on Monday.

South African maize futures ended mixed yesterday, struggling for direction.

The near-dated July white maize contract lost R4 to R2 046 a ton, September white maize edged down R10 to R2 074 a ton, and December white maize inched up 80c to R2 126,80 a ton.

The near-dated July yellow maize contract was down R4 to R2 016 a ton, but the September yellow maize contract gained R4,40 to R2 054,40 a ton and the December yellow maize contract gained R4 to R2 089.

The July wheat contract lost R14 to R2 945 a ton, the September wheat shed R17 to R2 988 a ton and the December wheat contract slipped R9 to R2 970 a ton. I-Net Bridge