LUCIA MUTIKANI, Johannesburg | Tuesday
SHARES ended sharply lower on Monday, with the benchmark All Share index slumping to a six-week low as investors hugged the sidelines following a slide on Wall Street on Friday, traders said.
The market was also rattled by negative sentiment stemming from Japan, where the Nikkei average tumbled to a 16-year closing low amid scepticism over the government’s economic package.
The Johannesburg bourse’s All Share index, which dipped to an intra-day low of 8893.4, closed down 144.4 points or 1.6% at 8900.3.
“We are down mainly due to the fact that there is a lot of turmoil in overseas markets … the negative sentiment from overseas markets has come into our markets,” said Alf Becker, a trader with Consilium Capital.
Losses on the bourse were led by technology and telecoms issues such as Dimension Data which shaved 4.32% to R44.30 and mobile phone operator M-Cell which fell 5.50% to R18.90, on the back of Nasdaq’s sharp falls on Friday.
Computer networking giant Cisco Systems announcement that it would cut up to 5_000 jobs added to the gloom in the sector.
Total market volumes were light. Market turnover came in at R1.6bn with declining issues outpacing advancers 274 to 119 and 116 unchanged.
On the financial services board, banking group Investec slumped 7.81% to R222 amid worries its planned acquisition of Fedsure might impact on financial results.
Investec on Friday cut its offer for Fedsure, for the second time since the deal was first agreed, to 11 Investec shares for every 100 Fedsure shares, but did not give reasons.
Elsewhere on the bourse, gold shares surrendered the bulk of early gains as the bullion price failed to hold above $273/ounce after surging to $274.80/ounce at one stage. The gold index ended up 19.1 points or 1.77% at 1101.2, from a session high of 1122.1.
The world’s largest gold producer AngloGold firmed 2.24% to R274, while rival Avgold jumped 4.28% to 390 cents.
Traders said they expected the market to remain cautious on Tuesday, ahead of the release of US producer price (PPI) figures for February due out on Friday. – Reuters
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