JSE opens flat despite firmer miners

The JSE opened flat on Tuesday as resources‚ platinum and gold shares lifted the all share index and industrials dragged down the bourse.

The value of shares traded in the early morning were low‚ with volumes subdued following the US public holiday on Monday.

Investors remained on the sidelines ahead of the release of local GDP data later in the morning. Economists are forecasting that the South African economy avoided a technical recession and‚ instead‚ was likely to have grown by a seasonally adjusted and annualised 2.7%.

Risk-on trade was muted as the market remains uncertain about the timing and extent of possible US interest rate hikes later in the year.

At 9.33am‚ the all share was 0.01% lower at 53‚616.20 points and the blue-chip top 40 shed 0.07%. Platinums added 0.58%. Resources were up 0.56% while the gold index rose 0.52%. Industrials shed 0.16%.

The platinum spot price rose 0.62% and the gold price was up 0.10%.

The uncertainty around the timing of a US rate hike fuelled some short-term safe-haven demand‚ benefiting the gold price as a result of a marginally weaker dollar‚ analysts at Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) said in an early morning note.

The medium-term outlook for the gold price was tied to central bank actions‚ particularly the Fed‚ but a rate hike could strengthen the dollar and hamper demand for gold‚ Nedbank said.

Among individual shares on the JSE‚ Anglo American rose 1.49% to R158.52.

Early morning gainers among the gold stocks included Gold Fields‚ rising 1.08% to R79.85. AngloGold Ashanti added 1.01% to R241.80.

Lonmin gained 3.72% to R39.83.

Early morning focus was on diversified financial services company Discovery‚ which fell 2.19% to R123.49 after reporting headline earnings per share (HEPS) slumped 35% to 571.1c per share in the year to end-June.

Retailer Mr Price recovered 0.71% to R164.16 after being sold off heavily earlier.

Among property stocks‚ Hyprop added 0.32% to R124.