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Johannesburg - More disappointing news on the Chinese economy seems to be the trigger that has broken the wall on the JSE.
The major indices were sharply lower on Friday as concern about a slowdown in China increased and the upcoming referendum in Crimea weighed heavily on global market sentiment.
Technical analysts warned for a long time that share prices are on elevated levels, but every time when the market tried to return to more realistic levels, bargain hunters pushed the indices to previous high levels.
A week of bad news on the Chinese economy however increased the selling pressure and after more bad news on Thursday on the world's second biggest economy, investors started selling shares with strong links with China.
By midday on Friday, the all share index, which lost 0.77% on Thursday, was another 1.24% lower on 46 244 points, while the Top 40-index fell 1.45% to 41 602 points, below a minor resistance level.
The big losers were the resources (-1.52%) and industrial indices (-1.67%), with Naspers [JSE:NPN] weighing heavily on the index.
Naspers, which gained almost 20% in the year so far, are experiencing the first real correction in a long time. It gave up nearly half of those gains in the last two days.
By midday, the share was down 5.88% on R1 211.38 after losing 2.87% in the previous session and is heading for its biggest one day loss in 30 months.
Earlier on Friday, Naspers gave up more than 6%, hit by a fall of over 6% in the share price of Chinese internet company Tencent‚ in which Naspers holds a 34% stake.
Investors hammered Tencent after China's central bank ordered a halt to some mobile payment methods used by internet companies, amid concerns over the security of their verification procedures. The move seems to be detrimental for the mobile payment businesses of Tencent.
The resources index, which lost 0.7% on Thursday, are now trading below the resistance level of 54 600 and Imara SP Read said that the index are now heading for 53 080.
Resources shed value due to expected decreased exports of commodities to China.
"Bad economic indicators from China do not bode well for resources and companies like Naspers," said Evan Giannakis, an equity dealer at Imara SP Reid.
Asian markets were also in a downward spiral this week since China announced a surprise trade deficit in February because exports had slumped.
The selling increased on Thursday when the Chinese government released fresh figures showing industrial production rose at its slowest pace in five years in January and February, while consumer spending saw its weakest increase for three years.
The market did not respond much on the news that South Africa’s mining and manufacturing output was last month a bit better than expected. Analysts warned that underlying trend was still one of weakness.
Amongst the big resources shares on the JSE‚ Anglo American [JSE:AGL] lost 3.13% to R247.94 and rival BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL] was down 0.55% to R320.49.
Harmony continued on the winning course of the last few days for gold shares, adding 2.31% to R39.40 after adding more than 3% on Thursday. Smaller player Sibanye Gold [JSE:SGL] jumped 3.27% to R25.56 after firming more than 2% on Thursday.
The major indices were sharply lower on Friday as concern about a slowdown in China increased and the upcoming referendum in Crimea weighed heavily on global market sentiment.
Technical analysts warned for a long time that share prices are on elevated levels, but every time when the market tried to return to more realistic levels, bargain hunters pushed the indices to previous high levels.
A week of bad news on the Chinese economy however increased the selling pressure and after more bad news on Thursday on the world's second biggest economy, investors started selling shares with strong links with China.
By midday on Friday, the all share index, which lost 0.77% on Thursday, was another 1.24% lower on 46 244 points, while the Top 40-index fell 1.45% to 41 602 points, below a minor resistance level.
The big losers were the resources (-1.52%) and industrial indices (-1.67%), with Naspers [JSE:NPN] weighing heavily on the index.
Naspers, which gained almost 20% in the year so far, are experiencing the first real correction in a long time. It gave up nearly half of those gains in the last two days.
By midday, the share was down 5.88% on R1 211.38 after losing 2.87% in the previous session and is heading for its biggest one day loss in 30 months.
Earlier on Friday, Naspers gave up more than 6%, hit by a fall of over 6% in the share price of Chinese internet company Tencent‚ in which Naspers holds a 34% stake.
Investors hammered Tencent after China's central bank ordered a halt to some mobile payment methods used by internet companies, amid concerns over the security of their verification procedures. The move seems to be detrimental for the mobile payment businesses of Tencent.
The resources index, which lost 0.7% on Thursday, are now trading below the resistance level of 54 600 and Imara SP Read said that the index are now heading for 53 080.
Resources shed value due to expected decreased exports of commodities to China.
"Bad economic indicators from China do not bode well for resources and companies like Naspers," said Evan Giannakis, an equity dealer at Imara SP Reid.
Asian markets were also in a downward spiral this week since China announced a surprise trade deficit in February because exports had slumped.
The selling increased on Thursday when the Chinese government released fresh figures showing industrial production rose at its slowest pace in five years in January and February, while consumer spending saw its weakest increase for three years.
The market did not respond much on the news that South Africa’s mining and manufacturing output was last month a bit better than expected. Analysts warned that underlying trend was still one of weakness.
Amongst the big resources shares on the JSE‚ Anglo American [JSE:AGL] lost 3.13% to R247.94 and rival BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL] was down 0.55% to R320.49.
Harmony continued on the winning course of the last few days for gold shares, adding 2.31% to R39.40 after adding more than 3% on Thursday. Smaller player Sibanye Gold [JSE:SGL] jumped 3.27% to R25.56 after firming more than 2% on Thursday.
