SARAH BULLEN and Reuters, Cape Town | Wednesday 6.00pm
THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange slipped further on Wednesday as international markets turned sour after Wall Street came back from its Labour Day holiday on a bear run.
Hardest hit on the JSE was the financial index which lost 2,36% on the day The Johannesburg bourse’s banks index has been steadily dropping since it scaled to a 1999 closing peak of 13821 on July 5. It closed at 10862 on Tuesday, 21,4% lower than its high in July.
Dealers said that the sector is struggling amid lingering concerns about bad debt, the industry’s Y2K readiness and a move to commodity stocks. This has over-shadowed expectations of further domestic interest rate cuts, which might otherwise have given it a lift. Some analysts, however, reckon that they are starting to look cheap.
The industrial index also lost ground on the day to dip 1,81% while the all gold index rode on the back of a strong gold price to end the day 0,96% higher. The all share index closed 1,16% lower, with the heavyweight Alsi40 index also losing ground with a 0,82% loss.
The rand held on to its gains against the dollar to trade as high of R6,04 to the dollar. At 5.00pm it was trading at R6,08 and at R9,85 to the pound.
Asian markets were hit by Wall Street’s overnight fall with both the Hang Seng and Nikkei indices losing ground. European markets followed suite with all key bourses trading lower as they move into late afternoon.