Stocks were flat by noon on Friday in what a trader said was a quiet session with "not too much driving the market".

By 12.09am, the JSE all share index was flat, up 0.12 percent with resources also flat, down 0.05 percent. Platinum miners collected 0.41 percent and gold counters edged up 0.21 percent.

Banks weakened 0.48 percent and financials eased 0.23 percent, but industrials edged up 0.41 percent.

The rand was last bid at 9.53 to the dollar from 9.41 when the JSE closed on Thursday. Gold was quoted at $929.15/oz a troy ounce from $937.55 at the JSE's last close, and platinum was at $1143.50/oz from its previous close of $1141.

"We are flat at the moment, there is not too much driving the market," the trader said.

"Overseas markets were strong last night and we are holding up on the back of that.

"There is not too much change in terms of news flow. There is a bit of rand weakening coming through on the back of the dollar strength, and that is why this gold price has eased back a bit.

"We are all waiting for next week's quarter end for world markets, and then we will see what happens after that. But we do need to consolidate and see some profit taking because at the moment we have reached some levels that make the market look very oversold. We will continue to rely on what happens in overseas markets, and we will see some consolidation before we attempt to head higher," he said.

Dow Jones Newswires reports FTSE 100 was still positive as investors digested the UK 4Q GDP data, which posted its sharpest quarterly contraction since 1980, slumping 1.6 percent on the quarter and 2.0 percent lower on the year. The result was largely in line with market expectations, "thus there is no meaningful reaction in the market", said a trader. But 1Q '09 is tipped to be even worse than 4Q '08, said Dominic Bryant, economist at BNP Paribas. "We are looking for continued contraction in the UK economy for the quarters ahead until some recovery in 2010," he added.

The FTSE 100 was last up 0.29 percent.

US stocks are expected to open lower on Friday, said David Morrison at GFT. He thinks markets will want to take a breather after another storming session, on Thursday.

He called the DJIA down 44.6 points and the S&P 500 down 4.9 points.

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