The JSE was down sharply by midday on Wednesday, led by an intense pull back by mining stocks on the JSE.
Mining stocks retreated, along with resources, as a fall in commodity prices burdened stocks.
At noon, the JSE’s all-share index lost 1,48%. The platinum mining index dropped 3,32%, and the gold mining index fell 2,57%. Resources gave up 2,92%.
Financials and banks were off 0,54% and 0,8% respectively, and industrials shed 0,23%.
The rand was bid at R6,99 to the dollar from R7,04 when the JSE closed on Tuesday, while gold was quoted at $794,67 a troy ounce from $812,95/oz at the JSE’s last close. Platinum was $27 lower, at $1 422 an ounce,
“There was a dramatic sell-off just after 10am and commodity stocks started taking a hammering as there was a lot of concern over commodity prices,” said a local equities trader.
He added that platinum and old prices came off, and a bit of a commodity slump followed.
At midday, platinum miner Anglo Platinum declined R24, or 2,54%, to R920 and Impala Platinum weakened R9,32, or 4,06%, to R220,18.
Aquarius Platinum had moved down 67,45%, or R158,50, by noon, as a result of a one-to-three share-price split. It was trading at R76,50 from Tuesday’s close of R235. The trader said that the share split is probably better for Aquarius, as it allows the stock to be “easily tradable” and is “better for liquidity”.
Gold miner AngloGold Ashanti pulled back R5,52, or 1,73%, to R312,98 and Goldfields dipped R4,51, or 3,76%, to R115,49.
Resources group Anglo American fell R13,55, or 3,3%, to R396,95 and BHP Billiton retreated R6,70, or 3,06%, to R212,40.
Elsewhere, brewer SABMiller lifted R2,05, or 1,11%, to R186,20.
The trader said that the big news about MTN and Telkom terminating talks concerning the latter’s review of its mobile strategy put big pressure on Telkom. The fixed-line operator plummeted R14,45, or 8,95%, to R147, but mobile operator MTN Group shot up R4,95, or 4,11%, to R125,25.
“Guys were sitting with long positions on Telkom and with short positions on MTN, and now they are trying to unwind those positions,” he said.
The trader also added that shortly before midday, approximately 1,2-billion Telkom shares had already been traded. — I-Net Bridge