THURSDAY, 7.15PM:
HESITANT international markets battered an already weak Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Thursday, forcing most indices to close softer. The all gold index lost more than 2,5% of its value as bullion plunged through the $300 an ounce level, trading at $298,25 at 4.00pm.
Accordingly the all gold index fell 25,6 points to a dismal 993,8. The industrial index alone managed to recover some of its day’s losses to close 9,2 points higher on 9764,3, with the financial index taking a heavy blow to drop 163,3 points to 13525,2. The all share index ended on 8_ 054,1, after shedding 66,1 points.
The bond market was extremely volatile on Thursday, dropping dramatically in the morning to regain some of its bounce through the day’s trade. An options close-out, with local institutional selling triggering stop-losses, dominated the morning, with the R150 yield rocketing to 12,99%.
A World Bank R1-billion, 19-year, zero-coupon Eurorand bond issue bolstered the market, and the R150 worked its way down the a 12,875% yield. The R153 also ended softer, moving to a 13,175% yield after Wednesday’s close of 13,110%.
The repo rate went to its lowest level since the repo system was introduced in March 9, as it sank to 14,846%.
The rand had a nerve-wracking day after it hit is worst-ever level of R5,0565 to the dollar early in the day. It crawled its way up, however, to reach R5,065 by 4.00pm.