The JSE remained in positive territory by noon on Friday with resources keeping the bourse afloat in what a local trader said was on continued positive sentiment from earnings in the US.

At 12pm the JSE all share index had collected 0.30 percent, with resources up 0.55 percent. Platinum and gold miners were flat, down 0.07 percent and 0.05 percent respectively.

Banks were down 0.94 percent and financials weakened 0.48 percent, but industrials edged up 0.47 percent.

The rand was bid at 7.42 to the dollar from 7.47 just before the JSE closed on Thursday. Gold was quoted at $1061.40 a troy ounce from $1056.42/oz just before the JSE's last close, and platinum was at $1369/oz, from $1362.50/oz at its previous close.

"We have remained slightly up on the market. We saw a very strong close in the US market yesterday. Sentiment remains positive," the trader said.

"The dollar is weakening continuously and the gold price and the prices of metals and commodities are stronger. When we see dips here and there, we see some buyers come back. It's mixed on our market. Some shares are recovering after some profit taking and a couple of shares are slightly off.

"We are going on the back of steady world markets. The trend is still on the back of positive sentiment on the earnings out of the US," he said.

"We have seen some wild swings intraday, but it doesn't change the trend. It's difficult to say what will happen because the volatility is still there. But at this point the dollar looks like it's weakening again. I would think this would remain the trend toward the end of the week, but we might see the market fluctuate towards the end of the day," he added.

Dow Jones Newswires reports that the FTSE 100 remained firm, with healthy sessions in Asian and US overnight giving support, as traders cheer better-than-expected 3Q earnings. Traders digest 3Q UK GDP data, which fell 0.4 percent in 3Q and was 5.2 percent lower on the year. Still, some traders say the market is shrugging off the data, remaining positive ahead of more US earnings on Friday. Nevertheless, GDP data show that not only "do we all feel that we're mired in a dire economic downturn, we also have figures to prove it," said GFT. "This also confirms that the recession is officially the longest on record," added GFT.

The FTSE 100 was last up 1.17 percent.

US stocks are called to open modestly higher on Friday, with the market taking a breather from the solid gains posted towards the end of the last session. David Morrison at GFT called the DJIA up ten points and the S&P 500 up one point. However, Morrison warned, "the longer this rally lasts, the nearer to a bout of heavy profit-taking we get." Eyes earnings from Microsoft, Honeywell and Whirlpool. Fed Chairman Bernanke speaks on regulation at the Boston Fed conference at 12.30pm GMT and existing home sales are at 2pm GMT.

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