The JSE swung from flat to higher and vice versa around midday on Wednesday as investors remained nervous about resource shares‚ which continued their slide unabated for a consecutive day.
At 12pm‚ the all share was up 0.32% to 49‚239.10 points. The blue-chip top 40 index rose 0.36%.
"You come in ... and you see commodities hitting fresh lows every day‚" said Larry Weiss‚ head of trading at brokerage firm Instinet. Oil prices "seem to be driving the broader decline"‚ he said.
At midday‚ the resource index had shed 2.15%. Platinums were down 1.9%. The gold index was up 0.29%.
Banks led the charge higher gaining 1.02%. Industrials and financials added 0.54% and 0.60%‚ respectively. Leading stock markets in Europe were in the red.
At noon (CAT)‚ the London FTSE 100 declined 0.37%‚ the Paris CAC 40 gave back 0.74% and the German DAX 30 lost 0.79%.
Among individual shares on the JSE‚ Anglo American plunged 11.67% to R64.27.
The share price of Exxaro fell 3.26% to R41.60.
Imperial was 4.45% higher at R136.
Sibanye rallied 3.72% to R22.31.
Nedbank was up 1.29% to R201.57. Barclays Africa climbed 2.02% to R154.31.
MMI Holdings gained 2.8% to R22.42.
Naspers rose 2.13% to R2‚011.99.
Mondi declined 2.39% to R297.25.
Coronation was down 1.18% to R55.34.
TMG Digital/BDlive
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.