JSE

THE JSE share market closed higher on Friday amid light trading volumes, with many traders being away on a long weekend.

Gold miners led the upside, while the financials index was the only one to finish in the red.

"The JSE did not have a busy day due to a lot of traders being away on a long weekend. We opened lower as Asia finished down a tad. We saw the euro a bit softer from the previous two week’s rally," said Michael du Plooy, stockbroker at PSG Konsult, Pretoria.

"Locally, Anglo American recovered nicely after some fair sales earlier in the day. The all-share started down, but we were marginally up at the close after having seen some profit taking after a good couple of days," the stockbroker said.

"The negative Chinese trade data report put a bit of pressure on our market, with Chinese imports and exports down. This will have a negative influence on our exports.

"But we have not seen a big sell-off in our resources, so the data did not affect the market much today (Friday)," he added.

Global markets were broadly lower after worse-than-anticipated China trade data for July triggered some profit taking in so-called ‘growth’ or ‘risky’ assets.

At 5pm local time, the JSE all-share index had gained 0.23% to 35,574.51 points, with financial the worst performing sector, down 0.14%, while gold stocks gained 2.17%.

Among local movers, Anglo American added R1.96 to R259.50, while Sasol gave up R5.92, or 1.69%, to R344.88, after the petrochemical giant late on Wednesday issued a trading update that fell below analysts’ estimates.

BHP Billiton gained R1.37 to R253.06.

Among gold miners, AngloGold Ashanti added R5, or 1.81%, to R281, Gold Fields gained R3.32, or 3.04%, to R112.62 and Harmony was up R1.21, or 1.49%, to R82.65.

Aquarius Platinum was up 22c, or 4.73%, to R4.87.

In industrials, SABMiller was down R4.06, or 1.12%, to R357.87, while Richemont added 63c, or 1.26%, to R50.58.