South African stocks sank deep into the red by midday on Friday with metal counters continuing to weigh as global markets took some time to consolidate recent gains.
The local bourse was earlier directed into weaker territory by world markets which lost momentum on the back of a fall on Wall Street overnight.
The all-share index had shed 3,62%, with resources falling 5,34%, gold miners giving up 4,83% and platinum stocks losing 3,28%.
Banks were down 3,83%, financials gave up 2,02% and industrials weakened 2,41%.
The rand was last bid at R9,72 to the dollar from R9,78 when the JSE closed on Thursday, while gold was last quoted at $840,05 a troy ounce from $854,28/oz at the JSE’s last close.
The platinum price was at $856/oz from its previous close of $854,50/oz and Brent crude was at $43,84 per barrel from $43,36 before.
“It’s not too surprising that after the recent big moves markets would take some time to consolidate,” a local trader said.
“Metals are still under pressure and that is related to movements in the dollar. The rand has remained strong and is adding some pressure as well,” he said.
“Mining shares are being sold very heavily,” he pointed out.
“We are also just moving in line with the Dow which was down overnight and then filtered into world markets,” he said.
“It is still very volatile,” he noted.
“I would say, though, that the market is getting back to normality,” he added.
Dow Jones Newswires reports that shares in London fell on Friday morning, with oil majors declining sharply as crude oil futures continued to hover around multi-year lows.
In London, the FTSE was last down 1,31%.
On the JSE, Anglo American was down R17,07, or 7,26%, to R217,93 and BHP Billiton gave up R10,37, or 5,62%, to R174.
Petrochemicals group Sasol lost R10,92, or 3,83%, to R273,98.
Kumba Iron Ore was off R4,60, or 2,81%, to R158,90 and Highveld Steel was down 72 cents, or 1,27%, to R56, but ArcelorMittal added 49 cents to R81,99.
Gold miner AngloGold Ashanti weakened R4,99, or 2,01%, to R243,26, Gold Fields was down R4,92, or 5,66%, to R82 and Harmony shed R9,59, or 10,10%, to R85,40.
Platinum miner Anglo Platinum fell R18,50, or 3,63%, to R491,50, Impala Platinum was down R4,21, or 3,24%, to R125,79 and Lonmin gave up R2,10, or 1,86%, to R110,90.
Among diversified miners African Rainbow lost R2,99, or 2,79%, to R104,01 and Exxaro shed R1,05, or 1,50%, to R68,95.
Zambia Copper Investments was up 60 cents, or 6,06%, to R10,50. The group announced earlier that its headline earnings per share were expected to be between 92% and 97% lower in the six-month period to end September 2008.
Among industrials, SABMiller was down R7,85, or 4,44%, to R168,97, Famous Brands shed 95 cents, or 6,33%, to R14,05 but Barloworld was up 89 cents, or 2,16%, to R42.
Imperial weakened 28 cents to R62,72. Moody’s Investors Service on Thursday downgraded the long-term issuer rating of Imperial Group to Baa3 from Baa2 and maintained its negative outlook.
Moody’s also downgraded other related global scale debt ratings of Imperial, also with a negative outlook.
Among banks Standard Bank gave up R3,01, or 3,33%, to R87,49, Absa lost R4,25, or 3,73%, to R109,75 and FirstRand weakened 74 cents, or 4,38%, to R16,16.
Financial services group RMB Holdings lost R1,91, or 7,14%, to R24,83 and Investec was off 63 cents, or 1,44%, to R43,25.
Retailer JD Group lost R1,49, or 4,20%, to R34,01 and Steinhoff was off 42 cents, or 3,36%, to R12,08.
Construction group Aveng weakened R1,40, or 4,79%, to R27,80 and Murray & Roberts gave up R1,34, or 2,83%, to R46,03.
Among telecommunications groups MTN shed R5,56, or 5,27%, to R100 but Telkom firmed 37 cents to R108,87.-I-Net Bridge