Go bulls…

The JSE continued last week’s trend - the bulls storming ahead through a pack of embarrassed bears – by gaining another 100 points to close just below 16500.

There is no interesting prize for guessing that gold stocks made the largest gain yesterday, and most certainly in the last week or so.

The Efficient Group reports that the higher gold price (1.23%) combined with a weaker currency (0.63%) resulted in the gold index jumping 4.07%. DRD Gold (7.00%), Harmony (5.90%), Gold Fields (3.4%) and AngloGold Ashanti (3.2%) pushed forward while the losers - in what looks like sector rotation - was financial stocks.

Platinum stocks declined yesterday despite the higher platinum price, Impala Platinum shedding 4.40% and Angloplat dropping 2.10%.

US stock markets were haunted by three ghosts yesterday; first the possibility that another hurricane could hit the Gulf Coast. Second the oil price rising sharply on this news, while the news that Opec might stand firm on their production quotas added oil to the oil price fire. The uncertainty around the Fed’s interest rate decision tonight is the third ghost.

This resulted in the US markets dropping 0.7% on average last night.

The oil price climbed 3.16% placing pressure on the international stock markets. The undecided German elections raised new doubts about much needed reforms and is the reason for the DAX moving below the 5 000 level. Both the Nikkei and the Hang Seng broke through important psychological levels this morning.

The Nikkei moved through 13 000 and the Hang Seng through 15 000. Confidence in the Japanese economy is leading to the purchasing of banking stocks, while the blue chips are driving the market in Hong Kong.

The Bulls are raging on the JSE but they need to take a breather from time to time, thus do not be surprised if the bears rear their heads today.