MONDAY, 6.00PM
FRIDAY’S interest rate cut helped the JSE shrug off a downward trend in international markets on Monday. Led by financial shares, the industrial and all share indices gained strength.
At close of trade the industrial index had gained 64,6 points to 8854, while the all share index climbed 36,8 points to 7293,8. The financial index shot up by 119,6 points to 10264,5. The all gold index lost 6,8 points to 1014,7.
In the US, stocks opened slightly up on Friday’s close, but then changed direction in nervous trading, as dealers awaited earnings reports from IBM and Microsoft. At 10:30am (16:30 SA) on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 8.1 at 7838,93 after one hour of trading, surrendering an early 21-point gain.
In response to last week’s declines on Wall Street, Hong Kong’s key Hang Seng index plummeted 4.6%. The index shed 630.13 points to 12970,88. On Friday, the index had gained 337.75 points.
On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, shares fell on doubts about an income-tax cut. The benchmark Nikkei-225 lost 183,91 points, or 1,05%, to close at 17294,51. On Friday, the Nikkei average closed down 229,07 points.
In London, the market seemed to be following the downward trend internationally. By 17:43 SA time, the FTSE-100 index was on 5211 – a drop of 60,10 points from Friday’s close.