The JSE retained its softer tone at midday on Wednesday after an overnight drop in Wall Street, while lower commodity prices added to selling pressures.
At 12.03pm, the all share index was down 0,40%. Resources lost 0,14%, while the gold and platinum mining indices fell 0,45% and 1,44% respectively. Industrials shed 0,44%, financials were down 0,84% and banks gave up 1,96%.
The rand was bid at 7,30 to the US dollar from 7,20 when the JSE closed on Tuesday, while gold was quoted at $644,75 a troy ounce from $647,65 at the JSE’s last close.
“The big driver is the inflationary pressures in the global economy. We saw a big drop in the New York last night [Tuesday] because of fears of an interest-rate hike,” a Johannesburg-based dealer said.
Investors will be watching the release of the United States May producer-price inflation and consumer-price inflation, which should shed more light on the short-term interest rate direction.
The US releases May producer-price inflation and consumer-price inflation data on Thursday and Friday respectively.
Pressured by lower commodity prices, gold miner Anglogold Ashanti was down 1,12%, or R3,25, to R287,50 and Gold Fields lost 27 cents to R113,25.
Platinum miner Anglo Platinum was off 11 cents to R1 179,89 and Impala Platinum gave up 2,41%, or R5,30, to R214,70.
However, resource heavyweights rose with Anglo American up R1,60 to R423,50 and BHP Billiton adding R1,25 to R185,25.
Elsewhere, Telkom tumbled after reporting below-forecast earnings earlier, traders said. Shares in Telkom were 3,97%, or R6,98, lower at R169,01.
Shortly before the opening, Telkom reported a 1% decline in headline earnings per share to R1 710,7 cents for the year ended March from 1 728,6 cents a year ago. An ordinary annual dividend of 600 cents per share was declared as well as a special dividend of 500 cents per share.
ICT group Datatec fell 35 cents to R41,40. It said earlier that its unit Westcon Africa Middle East has bought a 51% stake in the Sparnoon-Dynatech Group, which would extend the group’s footprint in a number of other African countries.
Among banks, Standard Bank was off 1,99%, or R2,04, to R100,36, Firstrand tumbled 2,06%, or 47 cents, to R22,30. Nedbank fell 2,65%, or R3,75 to R137,50 and Absa weakened 1,24%, or R1,67, to R133.
Industrial brands management group Barloworld gained 1,32%, or R1,64, to R125,94 and Remgro shed R1,29 to R177,70. – I-Net Bridge