Industrials push JSE index higher

THE JSE maintained its upward momentum yesterday to close higher, more or less in line with world markets, after they digested the news of the failure by Greek creditors to agree on releasing the next tranche of bail-out funds.

Markets quickly shrugged off this news to trade firmer in the hope that an agreement will be reached on Monday when they meet again.

At 5pm, the all-share index was up 0.51% at 37 498.02 points, with the top 40 index gaining 0.53% to 33 274.88 points. Industrials were the main gainers, adding 0.74%, while platinums gave up 1.05%, after a fair run over the last two days.

“It was a rand-dominated market with industrials higher because of defensive stocks like British American Tobacco and SABMiller trading stronger on a weaker currency,” Global Trader’s Mark Wilkes said in Cape Town. “Platinum was a bit on the back foot with Lonmin fairly volatile because of its rights issue,” he said.

News that the Eurogroup and International Monetary Fund had failed to come to an agreement on Greece’s debt reduction profile initially prompted a marking lower of risk assets, but this reaction quickly unwound, Barclays Bank said in its global note. Discussions on the issue will resume on Monday. European bourses erased earlier losses trading higher, but London’s FTSE 100 was flat (0.05%), while France’s CAC 40 index had added 0.41% by 4.48pm.

Meanwhile, US stocks opened a touch higher in quiet trading ahead of the Thanksgiving weekend break, Dow Jones Newswires reported. In US economic data, weekly jobless claims matched expectations for 410 000 new claims, while the previous week’s reading was revised up to 451 000.

Among individual stocks on the JSE‚ British American Tobacco traded 1.38% firmer to close at R457.26 and SABMiller added 1% to close at R374.05.

ArcelorMittal SA surged 10.81% to R28.09 and Coal of Africa added 5.49% to R1.73. Industrial share Barloworld gained 1.78% to R77.35.

Spar added 2.48% to R123.49 and Woolies gained 2% to close at R68.34.

Among platinums, Anglo American Platinum gave back 1.58% to R382.53 and Lonmin dipped 1.13% to R39.20.

Consumer goods group Tiger Brands stock was off 0.68% at R276.

Packaging group Nampak closed 3.06% higher at R29.99 while Cipla Medpro SA surged 7.93% to close at R8.30. – BDLive