JSE recovers at the opening on firm Dow showing

The JSE opened firmer on Tuesday as the market recovered due to a positive close on the Dow, and amid the expectation that earnings reports from US companies this week were likely to be strong.

Asian markets were trading mostly in positive territory, taking the lead from the higher close on Wall Street, which ended the day 0.16% up. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.69% and the Hang Seng 1.49%.

The market was watching movements in the rand, which was range-bound between R13.35 and R13.45 to the dollar, supporting banks and financials.

Banking stocks were also helped by a strong performance from Nedbank, reporting upbeat interim earnings.

Mining stocks were higher after Brent crude rose above $74 a barrel again. Platinum and gold stocks were lower despite firmer commodity prices.

At 9.36am the all share was 0.74% higher at 57,281.20 points and the top 40 rose 0.79%. Resources gained 1.04%, banks 0.89%, industrials 0.65%, financials 0.64% and food and drug retailers 0.42%. The gold index dropped 0.97% and platinums 0.13%.

Anglo American was up 1.72% to R296.10.

Remgro rose 1.83% to R209.98 and Bidvest 1.89% to R194.40.

Gold Fields shed 2.34% to R46.66.

Nedbank lifted 1.74% to R268.99, but Absa slipped 0.41% to R165.48. Nedbank said headline earnings rose 27% to R6.7bn for the six months to end-June while return on equity excluding goodwill improved to 18.4%.

Steinhoff dropped 4.12% to R2.33.

Among property stocks, Hammerson added 0.5% to R88.59.

Naspers added 0.93% to R3,280.31 as Tencent rose more than 1% in Hong Kong trade.

Pharmaceutical group Aspen Pharmacare rose 1.25% to R263.24.