JSE begins February on a positive note

The JSE started the second month of the year on a positive note‚ opening firmer on Monday as it shrugged off weaker Asian markets.

The JSE delivered a monthly performance in January that was mostly in line with global markets as domestic risk assets rallied sharply on the last trading day of the month‚ Momentum SP Reid said in an early morning note. The all share ended January 3.06% down.

The Dow closed 2.47% higher and the S& P 500 gained 2.50% on Friday. The Dow ended January 5.5% lower.

Momentum said that although January ended with an exceptionally upbeat performance in the US‚ the loss of traction at the start of the year had caused “meaningful technical damage to the trend for US risk assets“.

Weak Chinese purchasing managers index (PMI) data slowed the global rally on Monday‚ with the Hang Seng down 0.46%. However‚ the Nikkei was up 1.98%.

Data continued to disappoint in Asia. South Korea’s exports fell 18.6% in January‚ the weakest result since August 2009‚ Barclays Research analysts said.

At 9.25am the all share was 0.56% higher at 49‚419 points and the blue-chip top 40 rose 0.51%. The gold index climbed 1.78% and platinums gained 1.56%. Financials were up 0.71% and resources added 0.69%. Banks were up 0.56%.

Among individual shares on the JSE‚ Anglo American was 2.24% higher at R64.41.

Sasol was down 0.53% at R415.77 on the lower Brent price‚ which was down 1.78% at $35.24 a barrel on Monday morning.

ArcelorMittal surged 11.50% to R6.70 from oversold levels. Among gold stocks‚ Harmony was up 3.23% at R30.04. Lonmin added 5.04% to R12.50.

Barclays Africa gained 1.41% to R145.99.

Among retailers‚ Clicks jumped 5.21% to R91.43. Mr Price continued its recovery‚ adding 1.03% to R164.90.