South African stocks were lower at noon on Monday in tandem with overseas markets, but gains among selected miners capped the losses, traders said.
At noon, the all-share index was down 0,44%. Resources gained 0,32%, the gold mining index was up 1,31% but the platinum mining index was off 0,86%.
Banks tumbled 2,88%, financials weakened 1,72% and industrials gave up 1,72%.
The rand was bid at 7,88 to the US dollar, from 7,83 when the JSE closed on Friday, while gold was quoted at $905,45 a troy ounce from $896,35/oz at the JSE’s last close.
Traders said the overall sentiment continued to weighed by concerns of a global economic slowdown as the price of crude moves within sight of $150-per barrel with Friday’s worse-than-expected jobs data in the US.
However, the losses on the local bourse were limited by firmer commodity prices with gold regaining its appeal as a hedge against inflation due to the rising oil price.
“We are very lucky to have a commodity-based market. Had it not been for that we’d have been much, much weaker following sharp losses on Wall Street on Friday,” said Martin Lentsoane, a trader at Cortex Securities.
On the resource index, Anglo American was up R8,50, or 1,69%, to R512 and BHP Billiton collected R1,45 to R296,70.
Sasol was off R6, or 1,54%, to R474,56.
Gold miner AngloGold Ashanti was up R3,40, or 1,24%, to R277,40, Gold Fields added R1,37, or 1,39%, to R99,53 and Harmony gained R2,53, or 2,72%, to R95,53.
Among platinum miners, Anglo Platinum was off R4,88 to R1 325,12 and Impala Platinum fell R5,11, or 1,60%, to R314,89.
Elsewhere, fixed phone line operator Telkom was up R1,50, or 1,01%, to R150. It earlier reported year-end results that traders described as disappointing in general, but was somewhat boosted by its 50% interest in cellphone group Vodacom.
It reported that its operating revenue was up 9% to R56,3-billion in the year to March 31 2008.
Operating profit, however, gained just 0,1% to R14,5 rand, with headline earnings per share falling 4,4% to 1 634,8 cents.
Cellular phone group MTN slumped R5,60, or 3,98%, to R135,25. India’s Reliance Communications and South Africa’s MTN have agreed “broad contours” of a deal to create a global telecoms powerhouse but are still working out share-swap details, a report in India’s Economic Times said on Monday
Among banks, Standard Bank tumbled R3,15, or 3,72%, to R81,60, Absa was down R1,45, or 1,64%, to R87,10, Nedbank shed R2,71, or 2,75%, to R95,69 and FirstRand lost 23 cents, or 1,59%, to R14,25. – I-Net Bridge