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Industries and Indices
Industry classification benchmarks
The JSE classifies listed companies into sectors that take the company's core business activities into account and groups companies that share general industrial and economic themes together. If you are looking for the share price of a particular share in the newspaper you'll need to be familiar with the sector it falls into.
The broad economic sector (industry) categories are:
1. Basic Materials
2. Oil and Gas
3. Industrials
4. Consumer Goods
5. Consumer Services
6. Telecommunications
7. Financials
8. Exchange Traded Funds
For a detailed guide, you can visit the following website:
The JSE also has a specialist securities group, including preference shares, exchange traded funds, Kruger Rands, investment products, etc.
Analysing an industry (economic sector) It is important to know the sector in which a company operates. When analysing the industry, you may ask yourself the following questions:
- Who are the leading companies in the industry?
- Are the industry products or services in demand?
- Is the industry growing?
- What does the industry growth rely on?
- Is the industry greatly affected by Government intervention?
- Is this industry dependent on another industry?
Indices
The market is measured on a daily basis, during the exchange working hours. Indices give a basic idea of how well (or badly) the overall market is doing and these are good to use as a benchmark.
JSE Indices
For every sector on the JSE there is an index, listing all the companies in that sector. If the prices of the shares comprising the index increase during the period; that particular index will increase.
The popular indices are:
| All Share Index (Alsi) | In simple terms, the Alsi includes the average of the largest companies (market leaders) listed on the JSE. It Includes approximately 160 shares that represent approximately 80% of market capitalisation (market value). |
| FTSE/JSE Top 40 Index | Tracks the share price performance of the 40 largest companies on the JSE by market capitalisation, irrespective of whether they are resources, industrial or financial companies. |
| JSE Resources 20 RESI | Tracks the performance of the 20 largest mining companies by market capitalisation (market value). |
| JSE Financial 15 FINI | Tracks the performance of the 15 largest financial companies by market capitalisation (market value), and includes the top banking and insurance companies. |
| JSE Industrial 25 INDI | Tracks the performance of the 25 largest industrial companies by market capitalisation (market value). |
| JSE Dividend+ Index | Tracks the performance of the 30 higher yielding shares within the JSE Top 40 Index and the JSE Mid Cap Index, excluding real estate companies. Shares are weighted by a one-year forecast dividend yield as opposed to market capitalisation. |
You can track the performance of the market as follows:
| Indices | Level | % change from previous day |
| All Share | 26,459 | -0.68 |
| Top 40 | 23,871 | -0.84 |
| Resources 20 | 48,546 | -0.90 |
| Financials 15 | 8,502 | -0.82 |
| Industrials 25 | 18,884 | -0.51 |
How to read this table:
From this you can see that the performance of the markets has deteriorated since the previous day. Remember that the value of an index is meaningless on its own, it is a change in the index from day to day that is of interest.
Note: Individual shares often do not move in line with the All Share Index. For example, as at Feb 2007, Anglo American and BHP Billiton together comprised 57% of the resources index and this sometimes may cause the Resources index to rise, while the rest of the shares within the index could have fallen.
The world's stock market indices
Different countries have different rules for managing stock exchanges, and international markets may follow a different formula to calculate their indices. If worldwide share prices go up, our market will normally follow suit.
Examples of popular indices of world markets below:
| Exchange | Index name | Level | % change from prev. day |
| London | FTSE (Footsie) 100 | 6,280.70 | 2.39 |
| New York | Dow Jones | 13,308.39 | 1.38 |
| Tokyo | Nikkei | 15,877.67 | 0.71 |
| Frankfurt | DAX | 7,457.90 | 1.12 |
Market hours
What are the trading hours?
A Share Builder customer can place orders at any time, but these are only executed between 09h00 and 17h00. We accept orders for that day only until 15h00.
A Share Investor customer can place orders at any time and these will be executed between 09h00 and 17h00. We accept orders for that day only until 16h45.
Can I buy and sell shares telephonically?
Yes you can! Contact our client services helpdesk on 0860 SHARES (0860 742 737) during office hours.
For how long will my order remain in the market?
Orders are only valid for 1 trading day. If these are not matched in the market for the day, they expire and you will have to place the order again the following day.
What happens if I change my mind after placing the order?
If you are a Share Builder customer you can cancel your order at any time up to 15h00 when orders are placed on the market. After this time, no cancellation is possible.
If you are a Share Investor customer you can request cancellation of the order at any time. However, cancellation is only possible if the order has not yet been executed on the market.
What happens if I place an order after cut-off times/on the weekend/after hours?
The order is stored on our system and placed on the market on the next available trading day at 09h00 for Share Investor accounts 15h00 for Share Builder accounts.