The JSE was taking a pummelling in noon trade on Thursday following a sell-off in equity markets globally. A sharply weaker rand — which was at its worst levels in almost 11 weeks — helped cushion the blow to an extent.
By 12.11pm, the all-share index slipped 1,01%. Resources retreated 1,16%, the gold-mining index tumbled 2,8% and the platinum-mining index lost 0,78%. Industrials weakened 0,81%, while the financial and banks indices fell 1,23% and 1,55% respectively.
The rand was bid at 7,38 per dollar from 7,26 when the JSE closed on Wednesday, while gold was quoted at $634,50 a troy ounce from $637,58/oz at the JSE’s last close.
“The market was a lot lower than it is now. It was down about 1,5% at its worst levels,” said Cortex derivatives trader Lavan Gopaul.
“The big losers were the big winners yesterday [Wednesday]. Golds lost some of their glitter as bits of profit-taking came into the gold sector,” he continued.
He said that market participants had realised that the JSE as a whole was overvalued over the last few days. Most of the heavyweights had been hurt and there was lots of profit-taking in banks.
“The sell-off on United States markets overnight was the catalyst for the knock on our side,” Gopaul explained. “At the moment, US futures are looking very nervous. The Dow future is more than 30 points lower and the sell-off in US futures contributed to our market selling-off today [Thursday].”
Were it not for the weaker rand, the JSE could have fallen a lot further, he concluded.
While diversified resources group Anglo American was down R3,10 at R314,70 locally, it was 2,5% weaker in London.
BHP Billiton slipped less than 0,5% or 60c to R138,70, having lost over 1,5% in London.
Petrochemicals group Sasol slid 1,74% or R4,30 to R243,44.
AngloGold Ashanti slumped 3,86% or R13,53 to R337, Gold Fields tumbled 2,46% or R3,92 to R155,34 and Harmony was 2,67% or R2,80 lower at R102,20.
Impala Platinum surrendered R12,70 to R1 342,30 and AngloPlat eased R5,01 to R825.
Among industrials, Barloworld dropped 2,9% or R4 to R134. Imperial sagged 2,68% or R3,80 to R138 and Bidvest shed 2,42% or R2,80 to R112,70.
Media group Naspers plunged 3,85% or R4,94 to R123,51. Telkom gave up 1,68% or R2,29 to R134,21.
PP Cement was 2,62% or R10,26 softer at R381.
Retailer Shoprite weakened 2,06% or 51c to R24,30.
Despite being down in the region of 2% in Zurich, Swiss-listed luxury goods group Richemont was just 10c lower locally at R34,56. London-listed brewer SABMiller strengthened 55c to R145,11. Both were supported by rand weakness.
On the financial front, short-term insurer Mutual and Federal dropped 4,33% or R1,16 to R25,65.
London-listed financial services group Old Mutual fell 1,58% or 36c to R22,41.
Liberty Group tumbled 2,11% or R1,50 to R69,50 and Sanlam surrendered 1,19% or 19c to R15,80.
The dealer said that Sanlam’s results released before the opening were at the upper end of forecasts and the counter was just down in line with the rest of the market.
Sanlam reported a 35% increase in headline earnings per share to 138,4c for the six months ended June from 102,5c a year ago.
Total new business volume was up 47% to R43,8-billion, while the group reported net fund inflows of R11,8-billion. Headline earnings rose 17% to R3,13-billion.
In line with the group’s policy, no interim dividend was declared.
Banking group Absa lost 2,61% or R2,70 to R100,80 and Nedbank surrendered 2,25% or R2,55 to R100,85. FirstRand fell 1,27% or 23c to R17,82 and Standard Bank was 1,57% or R1,24 in the red at R77,51.
London-listed real estate group Liberty International, however, climbed 75c to R159.
Health and life insurer Discovery firmed 20c to R23,20. Discovery on Wednesday reported a 34% rise in diluted headline earnings per share to 126,4c for the year ended June. A maiden dividend of 27c per share was declared. — I-Net Bridge