At midday, the JSE was still hanging below the negative 2% mark as it continued to follow world markets which were still stumbling from the Dow’s losses on Thursday night.
At 12.01pm, the all-share index was 1,86% lower. Resources fell 2,47%, the gold mining index lost 2,10% and the platinum mining index was off 2,62%. Industrials dipped 1,41%, financials gave up 1,44% and banks pulled back 2,16%.
The rand was bid at 7,08 to the US dollar from R7 when the JSE closed on Thursday while gold was quoted at $663,35 a troy ounce from $668.55/oz at the JSE’s last close.
”The Dow took a tumble last night [Thursday] and world markets followed, with a lot of nervousness surrounding the market,” said a Johannesburg-based trader.
He added that the market still seemed to be correcting itself, with the local bourse seeing a lot of profit taking.
Anglo American was down 3,20% or R13,39 to R404,61 and BHP Billiton was R3,61 or 1,78% lower at R199,44.
Kumba Iron Ore added 0,25% to R177,25. The South African iron producer said on Friday that it had lifted headline earnings by 38% to R1,578-billion for the six months to the end of June.
This translated into diluted headline earnings per share of 470 cents compared with 359 cents per share for the previous comparable half-year and basic headline earnings per share of 502 cents versus 365 cents previously.
Among gold miners AngloGold Ashanti was R11,42 or 3,81% weaker at R288,50 and Harmony eased R1,55 to R96.
Anglo Platinum tumbled R49,98 or 4,67% to R1 020,01 and Impala Platinum gave up R4,71 or 2,23% to R206,79.
Among banks, Standard Bank gave up R2,51 or 2,41% to R101,50 and FirstRand eased 40 cents to R22,90.
Mobile telecommunications company MTN Group gave up 75 cents to R100,75 and Telkom shed R2,10 or 1,20% to R172,90.
Media group Caxton fell 69 cents to R16,20, Primedia added 15 cents to R25,85 and Naspers-N retreated R2,96 or 1,65% to R176,06.
Petrochemical giant, Sasol weakened R5,62 or 2,10% to R262. – Sapa