South African stocks plunged on Tuesday, shaken by United States financial-sector shocks and falling metal prices, while the rand fell as much as 2,42% against the dollar before clawing back some ground.
The Top-40 index closed 2,71% down to 22 831,30 points, after it pared earlier losses of more than 4%, and the larger all-share index fell by 2,59% to 24 978,86 points.
”The financial problems in the United States are driving global markets … On the back of that there is quite negative sentiment,” said Abri du Plessis, chief investment officer at Gryphon Asset Management.
”Commodity prices are taking a hiding; as a result our commodity companies are also falling,” Du Plessis added.
Platinum slipped more than 9% to its lowest level since October 2006 and crude oil prices slipped nearly $3 to a seven-month low.
Diversified mining company African Rainbow Minerals was the biggest loser on the JSE, shedding 7,74% to R193.
Index and mining heavyweights Anglo American and rival BHP Billiton slid 6,25% to R330 and 2,91% to R203,99 respectively.
At 5.36pm the rand was 1,18% weaker at R8,1650 per dollar compared with Monday’s close of R8,07.
”Market turmoil basically weakened the rand today. The whole emerging [FX] market, like the Turkish lira, is also weakening,” said RMB trader Jim Bryson. ”It’s just continued problems in the [United] States … The rand is going to be prone to these weakenings.”
The rand, however, recovered from a session low of R8,27 a dollar touched earlier as investors took flight from risky assets.
”We couldn’t break above R8,25/27, which is most probably significant … If we go through that we look to the rand to go quite a lot higher [weaker],” Bryson said.
The JSE platinum index fell by 3,1%, led by Impala Platinum Holdings, which lost 5,98% to R173, while Lonmin fell by 5,5% to R383,94. Insurer Old Mutual shed 5,55% to R12,60.
Nedbank dropped by 4,69% to R95,50 and FirstRand slid 2,23% to R16,25.
Sasol, the world’s top maker of fuel from coal, lost 4,57% to R334 while Gold Fields was down 4,51% to R60,95 and AngloGold Ashanti lost 2,69% to R187,80.
Construction company Aveng bucked the trend, gaining 3,17% to R66,13, and cement maker PPC rose 2,24% to R32.
Compared with the rand and stocks, government bonds had a less turbulent session, and were just slightly weaker late on Tuesday, with yields consequently edging higher.
The yield on the benchmark 2015 bond was up half a basis point at 9,085%, while that for the 2036 went up by the same margin to 8,425%. — Reuters