The JSE was weaker on Thursday morning, failing to benefit from improved international sentiment.
At 9.30am the all share was down 0.26% at 54,556.7 points and the top 40 had lost 0.25%. Gold miners were off 1.36% and industrials 0.34%.
The Dow had closed more than 2% firmer on Wednesday, as investors breathed a sigh of relief after the US midterm elections, which many analysts believe could quell volatility on global markets. This was the biggest post-election jump by US markets in more than 35 years, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
Chinese data earlier also surprised to the upside, with exports and imports for October showing resilience despite the trade conflict with the US, the newswire said.
Total exports rose 15.6% on an annualised basis, better than the 11% expected by the market, while imports jumped 21.4%, compared to a consensus forecast of 13%.
Local data on Thursday could also give some direction to equities, with mining and manufacturing data due at 11.30am and 1pm respectively.
According to Trading Economics, mining production is expected to have risen 0.3% in September compared with the same period last year, and manufacturing output is expected to have increase by 1.7%.
Markets will also be eyeing a US Federal Reserve monetary policy announcement on Thursday evening, although no change to interest rates is expected.
In morning trade, diversified miner Glencore was up 0.84% at R58.50.
Rand hedge AB InBev added 0.75 to R1,069.01.
Mr Price fell 1.11% to R246.
TFG was up 0.56% to R167.44 ahead of interim results to end-September later in the day.
MTN lost 1.32% to R88.32. Telkom has opted to end its nine-year deal for roaming services with MTN, opting instead to switch to Vodacom.
Naspers was down 0.48% at R2,864.63.
At the same time, gold was down 0.2% at $1,223.89/oz, while platinum was up 0.3% at $872.90.
Brent crude was 0.27% firmer at $72.19 a barrel.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 