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"The market is playing around Tuesday's closing levels. It is almost without the trend," said Ian Cruickshanks, market commentator at Nedbank Capital. "Market players are reducing their risk exposure in case there are major surprises in the Budget."

At 12:00, the JSE all-share index was down 0.13% to 34,098.23 points, led by platinum miners, which shed 0.45%, but gold miners lifted 0.47%, while the resource index shed 0.37%.

Financials slipped 0.16%, banks were flat, as were industrials.

The rand was at 7.72 to the US dollar, from 7.71 at the JSE's close on Tuesday. Gold was quoted at US$1,754.89 a troy ounce from US$1,748.02/oz at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was at US$1,695/oz, from US$1,679.99/oz before.

European stocks ticked up and down between small losses and gains on Wednesday, as investors continued to dissect the new bailout deal for Greece and after mixed business activity data, although a decent set of corporate results offered some solace for investors, Dow Jones Newswires reports.

London's FTSE 100 index was down 0.33% to 5,908.49 at noon local time.

Although Greece has, in principle, secured a second bailout deal, there are still many questions to be asked about implementation and how effective the deal will be.

The next step is to see how willingly private sector creditors will participate in the deal. The Institute of International Finance has negotiated a deal on behalf of private holders of Greek debt that will see a 53.5% reduction in the nominal value of their holdings.

Asian stock markets closed mostly higher, with China giving investors something to ponder after the preliminary HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index, a gauge of manufacturing activity in the world's second-largest economy, rose to 49.7 in February compared with 48.8 in January.

Despite the improvement, the index remained below the key 50-mark, indicating the manufacturing sector continued to contract albeit at a slower pace.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.0%, while China's Shanghai Composite Index advanced 0.7%.

On the JSE, Anglo American (AGL) was down R3.56 or 1.08% to R326, BHP Billiton (BIL) lost R1.30 to R252.39 but Sasol (SOL) added R1.61 to R402.11.

AngloGold Ashanti (ANG) pocketed R2.59 to R331.90, Harmony Gold Mining (HAR) picked up 61 cents to R99.62 and DRDGOLD (DRD) lifted 9 cents or 1.46% to R6.25.

Anglo American Platinum (AMS) gained R2.49 to R572.49, while Impala Platinum (AMS) lost R1.65 or 1.01% to R161.40.

Massmart (MSM) was down R1.86 or 1.02% to R180.69. The consumer goods distributor reported headline earnings per share of 416 cents for the 26 weeks ended December 2011 from 366 cents a year ago. Diluted HEPS were 407.3 cents from a previous 343 cents.

An interim dividend of 252 cents was declared, unchanged from the previous period.

Operating profit before forex and integration costs was up 4.8% to R1.326 billion, while revenue was up 14.9% to R31.54 billion.

Imperial Holdings (IPL) was up six cents to R139.68. The transport and logistics group reported diluted headline earnings per share of 688 cents for the six months ended December 2011 from 690 cents a year ago. Core earnings per share rose 30% to 756 cents.

Revenue was 22% higher at R38.385 billion while operating profit improved 23% to R2.621 billion.

An interim dividend of 300 cents per share was declared, up 36% on a year ago.