Stocks AM: JSE sees bright start after Dow rally

    Johannesburg, Mar 12 (I-Net Bridge) – The JSE started Friday in the black tracking a late rally on Wall Street overnight.
     At 09:20 the JSE all share index gained 0.65%, with resources up 1.29%, gold miners picked up 1.28% and platinum miners firmed 0.58%.
     Banks pocketed 0.28%, financials found 0.42% and industrials were flat, up 0.10%.
    The rand was bid at 7.42 to the dollar, from 7.45 at the JSE’s close on Thursday. Gold was quoted at US$1,113.34 a troy ounce from US$1,102.22 at the JSE’s last close. Platinum was at $1,613.50/oz from $1,586/oz at the JSE’s last close.
    “The Dow saw a turnaround last night, and markets are mostly following Wall Street’s lead this morning, although Asia is mixed. Gold is slightly firmer.”
    Dow Jones Newswires reported that European stocks are expected to open higher Friday, following the late session rally on Wall Street. Ben Potter at IG Markets calls London’s FTSE 100 up 16 at 5,633, Frankfurt’s DAX up 23 at 5,952 and Paris’s CAC-40 up ten at 3,939. Potter notes there are still concerns that China is attempting to rein in its economic growth, so this
may keep the upside in check in the near term.
    The economic agenda kicks off with euro-zone industrial production at 11:00 GMT, followed by US retail sales at 13:30 GMT. University of Michigan index is at 14:55 GMT, US business inventories at 15:00 GMT.
    Shares in Asia were mixed with developers in China weak on caution over potential for monetary tightening measures, but weaker JPY supported Japan exporters. Nikkei was up 0.8%, but the Hang Seng traded 0.31% down.
 
   By Gareth Vorster
   I-Net Bridge.
   Copyright 2010 I-Net Bridge. All rights reserved.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 9:49 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.