Local stocks were mixed in early afternoon trade on Wednesday due to volatility, but the feature of the morning session was a strong gain by synthetic fuel producer Sasol.

At 12.25pm, the JSE's broader all share index was up 0.09 percent, with the industrial index up 0.88 percent, but resources were down 0.38 percent. Platinum was up 0.9 percent and banks by 0.9 percent, while gold was up 0.3 percent. Financials were down by a marginal 0.06 percent.

The rand was bid at 7.50 to the dollar from 7.55 when the JSE closed on Tuesday, while gold was quoted at $870.60 a troy ounce from $881.70/oz at the JSE's last close.

I-Net Bridge