The JSE edged higher on Friday morning, with banking stocks faring best, as trading conditions remained subdued by holidays in the US.
US markets will close early on Friday, which is Black Friday, and had been closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
“Markets will have to wait until next week for any fresh economic data, and we expect another relatively quiet trading day today,” said TreasuryOne senior dealer Andre Botha in a note.
Asian markets were higher on Friday morning, but had been subdued earlier. Data showed industrial profits for Chinese firms jumped 28.2% year on year in October, ahead of expectations, and at their fastest pace in almost nine years, Bloomberg reported.
At 9.30am the JSE was up 0.35% to 58,128.81 points, while the top 40 had gained 0.31%. Banks had risen 1.15%, while gold miners were down 1.25%.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 was down 0.44%, while both the CAC 40 and DAX 30 were flat.
In morning trade the rand was flat at R15.20480/$, while it was 0.2% weaker at R18.13184/€ and 0.22% down at R20.31972/£.
Gold was flat at $1,808.72/oz, while platinum had fallen 1.29% to $954.20. Brent crude had inched up 0.12% to $47.82 a barrel.
There was little corporate news to give the JSE direction. Earlier, small cap ICT firm PBT Group upped its interim dividend for the six months to end-September by a third, reporting a rise in profits amid a continued demand for digital services, such as cloud-based computing.
At 9.52am, PBT was down 2.26% to R3.90, but the group's share has almost doubled so far in 2020.
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