OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 11.45am.
THE familiar components of a market bloodbath were all in place on Thursday morning, and local indices delivered. The Dow lost 237 points on Wednesday night, and Asian markets were also down. Further, the International Monetary Fund’s recently released World Economic Outlook halved its worldwide growth forecasts, and projected emerging markets might have a rocky ride to recovery sometime around 2000.
Futures activity suggested a sharp drop in SA’s markets in pre-open trading. The all share lost 144 points by 11:20, holding at 4955, while industrials fell 234 to 5562.
The financial index stood at 7210, a loss of 325, while all gold took advantage of the turmoil in other markets and the rising price of gold, gaining 63 points to 1161.
Bonds were hit by interest rate expectations, as traders wanted further cuts around the world. The R150 lost around 37 basis points to 17,735% by mid morning.
The rand slipped to more than R6 to the dollar, but traders expected some resistance should the currency get to the R6,10 level. The rand was marked at R6,0175 to the dollar at 11:02am.
Gold gained $1,90 Thursday morning, and at 11:20am the price of bullion was $298,85.