South African shares ebbed at the start of trade on Monday in dealings that were dampened by a market holiday in Britain and an Earth Summit at home.
The all-share index gave up 0,4% to 9,760 points by 0756 GMT, led lower by bellwether Anglo American, which shed 0,7% to R137.
Anglo’s early losses were limited by gains in subsidiary Anglo American Platinum. The world’s biggest producer of the white metal added 1,2% to R340 after a large block trade on Friday pushed its price up more than three percent.
Angloplat was in the minority, with losers outpacing gainers by 67 to 53.
Dealers said Johannesburg stocks were falling in line with pre-weekend weakness on Wall Street and in the absence of the UK traders that often determine direction in Johannesburg.
”With London on holiday, no-one here is going to make any big decisions today,” said one dealer.
”Everyone’s twiddling their thumbs.”
Attention was also focused on the UN Earth Summit, which starts in Johannesburg at 0800 GMT.
But some buying did creep in at the lower levels, with stocks like insurer Sanlam moving up 2,9% to 780 cents.
Tech group Dimension Data extended last week’s losses after subsidiary Datacraft Asia sank further on concerns over a probe into the network systems integrator by Singapore’s white-collar crime unit.
Didata gave up 2,3% to 425 cents.
Dealers said trade was likely to continue thin on Monday, but Tuesday was set to be busier, with investors looking to the release of domestic second quarter GDP figures for direction. – Sapa