The JSE Securities Exchange was weaker in noon trade on Thursday, dragged down by a stronger rand. A poor performance on Wall Street overnight added to the negativity.
By 11.59am, the all share and all share industrial indices shed 0,74% and 0,75% respectively. Resources retreated 1,14%, the gold mining index tumbled 2,69% and the platinum mining index slid 2,11%. Financials were flat (- 0,01%), while the banks index was 0,52% in the black.
The rand was quoted at 6,09 per dollar from 6,12 when the JSE closed on Wednesday, while gold was quoted at $433,50 a troy ounce from $434,60/oz at the JSE’s last close.
“Turnover hasn’t been bad — already over one billion rand has traded. We’ve seen nice business in Anglo, Billiton and SABMiller,” a dealer said.
He added that for the most part, the JSE was weaker.
“It’s definitely a currency story. The rand was at 6,06 early, which has impacted on the dual-listeds,” he said.
Gold and platinum stocks were taking a hammering, even though precious metals prices were holding their own.
“World markets have also had a negative effect. The Dow was down last night and Japan was down this morning, but I think it’s mainly a rand story at the moment,” he concluded.
On the market’s downside, global resources group Anglo American lost 99 cents to R138,01 and BHP Billiton weakened 1,04% or 81 cents to R77,20.
Petrochemicals group Sasol slipped 1,04% or R1,50 to R143.
Gold miner Harmony plunged 3,87% or R1,75 to R43,50, Gold Fields slumped 3,55% or R2,42 to R65,80 and AngloGold Ashanti surrendered 1,93% or R4,20 to R213.
AngloPlat dropped 2,39% or R6 to R245 and Impala was down 2,13% or R11 at R505.
Swiss-listed luxury goods group Richemont was 1,55% or 30 cents in the red at R19,10.
Diversified industrial Barloworld weakened 1,78% or R1,70 to R93,80 and London-listed brewer SABMiller was 70 cents softer at R92,40.
MTN Group gave up 30 cents to R42,10 and Telkom was 85 cents lower at R107,05.
Retailer New Clicks slipped 2,67% or 20 cents to R7,30. Before the opening, it reported a 16,8% fall in its diluted headline earnings per share for the six months to end-February 2005 to 37,6 cents from 45,2 cents a year earlier. The group declared an interim distribution of 11,2 cents, compared to 12,5 cents at the interim stage in 2004.
The dealer said the results were in line with expectations.
Financials to fall included London-listed Old Mutual, which was 1,37% or 20 cents in the red at R14,40. Banking group Nedcor was off 1,61% or R1,20 at R73,50.
Investment trust VenFin slipped 1,53% or 40 cents to R25,80.
On the upside, FirstRand firmed 1,15% or 15 cents to R13,20 and Absa added 1,03% or 79 cents to R77,30. Standard Bank inched 15 cents higher to R60,50.
Sanlam strengthened five cents to R11,85.
Chemical and explosives group AECI jumped 2,47% or R1 to R41,50 and packaging group Nampak perked up 13 cents to R15,99. – I-Net Bridge