South African stocks were deep in the red by noon on Monday, dropping by more than 5% in line with international markets as local resource and platinum stocks continued to come under pressure.
Traders said that with the United States financial bailout being approved, the market is still not sure what it means for the market in the long run.
“Markets are down and it all stems from Friday’s events with the bailout,” a trader said. “It’s not looking too good at the moment.”
“The trader explained that the dollar had also strengthened quite a bit “and that is why commodity prices have come off so significantly”.
“At this point in time, it seems like everyone wants out of equities,” the trader said.
At 12.11pm, the all-share index sank 5,21% with resources down 6,92%.
Platinum stocks shed 9,04% and gold miners lost 3,22%. Industrials fell 4,03%, financials gave up 4,05% and banks were down 5,14%.
The rand was bid at 8,73 to the dollar from 8,45 when the JSE closed on Friday, while gold was last quoted at $841,33 a troy ounce from $838,52 when the JSE last closed.
Platinum was trading at $960/oz from a previous close of $950/oz. Brent crude was at $87,12 per barrel, from its previous close of $90,25.
Dow Jones Newswires reports that the FTSE 100 fell 5,7% at 4 694,4, hitting a new intraday low on Monday amid worries about the health of the financial sector and the global economy.
“While extra capital and provision of liquidity would help stimulate the economy, to give banks more confidence, substantial interest-rate cuts would also be needed,” says a trader. HBOS shares tumbled over 15% and Royal Bank of Scotland was 13% lower. Mining stocks also weighed heavily on the index amid fears that a global recession would weigh on demand for commodities, with Eurasian Natural Resources and Kazakhmys both losing 18%.
US stock futures tumbled on Monday as the world’s financial crisis didn’t appear to be repaired by the $700-billion troubled rescue plan, with Germany seeing the need to guarantee its retail deposits and Bank of America Corp settling a regulatory dispute by cutting mortgages by $8,4-billion. S&P 500 futures fell 33,6 points to 1 074,70 and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 43,5 points to 1 434. Dow industrial futures fell 274 points.
On the JSE, Anglo American lost R19,68, or 7,41%, to R245,82 and BHP Billiton fell R13,34, or 7,47%, to R165,20.
Sasol dropped R14,80, or 4,81%, to R293,20.
Among gold miners AngloGold lost R7,16, or 4,15%, to R165,53 and Gold Fields fell R2,45, or 3,57%, to R66,10.
Platinum miners Anglo Platinum plummeted R73,09, or 11,69%, to R552,01, Impala Platinum lost R11,17, or 7,97%, to R129,05 and Lonmin shed R11,09, or 4,37%, to R242,41.
Among other miners, Exxaro gave up R6,25, or 8,65%, to R66 and African Rainbow lost R13,81, or 8,43%, to R149,99.
Financial-services group Old Mutual gave up 55 cents, or 4,68%, to R11,20 and Sanlam was down 64 cents, or 3,60%, to R17,16.
Among bankers Standard Bank lost R4,01, or 4,61%, to R82,99, Nedbank was down R5, or 5%, to R95, Absa shed R4,45, or 4,16%, to R102,55 and FirstRand gave up R1,03, or 6,42%, to R15,02.
Investec lost R3,50, or 7,09%, to R45,90 and RMB Holdings was down R1,94, or 7,52%, to R23,85 .
Among industrials, brewer SABMiller was down R3,45, or 2,28%, to R147,55, Swiss luxury goods group Richemont lost R1,80, or 4,87%, to R35,15, Imperial shed R2,99, or 5,07%, to R56 and Bidvest gave up R3, or 3%, to R97.
Telecommunications group MTN lost R4,43, or 4,10%, to R103,57 while Telkom gave up R3,16, or 2,85%, to R107,84.
In the news, New Clicks was down 72 cents, or 4,62%, to R14,87. This is after the retailer advised that it expects its diluted headline earnings per share for the year ended August 31 2008 to be between 25% and 30% higher than the previous financial year.
PSG lost 90 cents, or 5,73%, to R14,80. The group on Monday announced that headline earnings for the six months ended August will be between 27,8 cents and 31,5 cents per share or between 83% and 85% lower than for the previous comparable period.