JSE faces higher Asian markets on Wednesday as focus shifts to economic data
The JSE faces firmer Asian markets on Wednesday morning, despite a lacklustre performance on Wall Street overnight, with investors waiting for fresh catalysts.
Global equities have benefited so far this week as the concern about rising inflation recedes slightly, which has reduced volatility, particularly in bond markets.
US jobs numbers for February will be closely watched on Wednesday, while data on business activity in the eurozone is due out later.
In morning trade the Hang Seng was up 1.69% and the Shanghai Composite 1.33%.
Tencent, which gives direction to the JSE through the Naspers stable, had gained 1.58%.
The rand was flat at R14.93/$.
Gold was down 0.13% at $1,735.24/oz while platinum had fallen 0.39% to $1,199.27. Brent crude was 0.64% higher at $62.49 a barrel.
Engineering and mining contractor Murray & Roberts is expected to report a sharp fall in earnings in its six months to end-December, still weighed down by Covid-19 restrictions.
Brimstone Investments is due to report a fall in headline earnings per share for its year to end-December later, weighed down partly by pressure on its listed investments.
The economywide IHS Markit SA purchasing managers index (PMI) for February is also due out later. The PMI is an indicator of private-sector business performance taken from a survey of hundreds of companies. It showed a rise to 50.8 points in January, with anything above 50 indicating expansion.
Source: businesslive.co.za
