JSE led higher by precious-metal miners

The JSE was firmer on Friday morning, led by precious metal miners, but was still set to snap a four-week winning streak.

Global equities have been buffeted this week by volatility in the oil price, after an attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities at the weekend raised the spectre of an escalating conflict with Iran.

The US Federal Reserve also delivered a mildly hawkish message at its policy meeting on Wednesday, while locally, the Reserve Bank kept interest rates on hold at 6.5% on Thursday.

At 10.02am the all share was up 0.32% to 56,303.2 points and the top 40 had risen 0.32%. Gold miners added 1.93%, platinums 1.31% and industrials 0.7%. Banks fell 0.9%.

Gold was up 0.35% to $1,503.99/oz and platinum 0.71% to $943.95. Brent crude was flat at $64.89 a barrel.

Diverisfied miner Glencore gained 1.52% to R47.47.

Precious-stones producer Gemfields was unchanged at R1.61, saying earlier that its net profit fell 22% to $12.4m in its six months to end-June, largely due to lower quality of production at its Montepuez ruby mine (MRM) in Mozambique.

Investec was down 4.8% to R87.27. It said earlier that headline earnings per share for the six-months to end-September could fall as much as 18% as it battles a challenging operating environment.

Naspers added 0.88% to R2,403 and Prosus 1.4% to R1,128.99.

Grand Parade Investments was unchanged at R2.85. It said earlier that operating profit for the year to-end June almost doubled, partly due to an improved performance at its Burger King restaurants.

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