The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) retreated like a fox chased by a pack of hounds on Thursday morning as weak world markets and a strong rand took their toll. Basket-selling by futures players added to the bourse’s weakness.
At 12.01pm, the all-share and all-share industrial indices were down 1,35% and 1,01% respectively. Resources tumbled 1,78%, with the gold mining index giving up 1,05%. Financials fell 0,94% and the banks index declined 1,05%. The platinum mining index inched up 0,24%.
On the Top 40 index, only five stocks were up and on the all-share index stocks in the red outnumbered those in the black by about three to one.
“World markets took an absolute pasting. The Nikkei was down over 500 points, the Hang Seng was also over 500 points lower. The Dow was weaker, the Nasdaq was down, Europe is softer and US futures are down,” a dealer lamented.
“The strong rand is not helping — the JSE is just taking a bath.”
He continued that buyers were absent from the market and volumes were fairly thin. While more than R700-million-worth of shares had traded, which is an improvement on recent days, about a quarter of this was in London-listed diversified resources group Anglo American, which has a weight of just more than 15% on the all-share index.
Anglo was down 2,27% or R3,10 at R133,20 and BHP Billiton was 3,14% or R1,70 weaker at R52,50. Synthetic fuels group Sasol slipped 1,14% or R1 to R86,50.
Swiss-listed luxury goods group Richemont slumped 2,71% or 41 cents to R14,72 and pulp and paper producer Sappi shed 1,72% or R1,59 to R90,75.
London-listed beverages group SABMiller weakened 40 cents to R57,60 and London-listed IT group Dimension Data took a 2,81% or 10 cent dive to trade at R3,46.
Things were not much better on the financial front with Old Mutual Plc falling 1,34% or 16 cents to R11,75 and Liberty International losing 1,17% or 90 cents to R76.
FirstRand was the biggest decliner among the ‘big four’ banks, falling 1,49% or 12 cents to R7,95.
“One of the only shares that is performing well is Impala. I think it was smashed too hard and fast over the past couple of days,” the dealer commented.
Impala bounced 1,19% or R7,01 to R597,01.
Avgold added 2,5% or 25 cents to R10,25.
“Avgold released results yesterday and these might have been misconstrued. People are looking at the results in more depth and saying the share might be worth a punt,” the dealer commented.
On Wednesday morning, Avgold reported a headline loss per share of 12 cents for the September quarter from a two cent profit in the June quarter.
However, headline earnings per share before unrealised non-hedge derivatives rose to six cents in the September quarter from two cents in the June quarter.
Revenue declined to R244 190-million from R260 728-million in the June quarter but operating profit rose to R42 890-million rand from R33 174-million.
Other advancers included food group Tiger Brands, which ticked up 49 cents to R70,49. Retailer Pick ‘n Pay was 1,74% or 25 cents higher at R14,60 and IT group Comparex surged 2,96% or 25 cents to R8,70. — I-Net Bridge