MIKE METELITS, Johannesburg | Friday 6.00pm.
LOCAL markets continued to weaken on Friday as Asian markets were sharply split and European and US markets continued a downward trend. The Nikkei lost 150 points and the Hang Seng gained 150, while European markets were down by varying degrees.
The FTSE-100 was down 58 points at 15:48 GMT, while Frankfurt’s DAX was only down 3. The Dow opened 44 points off, and the JSE, bonds and even the rand responded to these negative pressures.
The allshare lost 1% or 62 points to close at 5622, while industrials dumped 105 to 6330, a loss of 1,63%. Financials gave up 143 points, also about 1,6% to close the week at 8787, and a flat gold price and losses on other financial fronts pushed all gold up 13 to 1045. Bullion was unchanged at $292,55.
Bonds kept losses to 7 basis points, closing at 16,15% in weak and spotty trading. Dealers said the market was waiting for next week’s data releases to give it some direction, and was drifting until then. Money supply and producer price data are expected to give traders something to go on.
Importers’ demand and a slightly stronger dollar accounted for the mildly weaker rand Friday. Light trading enabled large orders to move the market, and the unit closed the week at R5,745 to the dollar, down about 3 cents.