Johannesburg - The JSE slipped to a fresh three-week intraday low on Wednesday‚ dragged down mainly by a selloff in gold and resource shares.
At 12:19 the All Share [JSE:J203] index was down 0.71% to 40 444.06 points‚ with the Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] index losing 0.79% and the gold and resource indices shedding 2.47% and 2.44% respectively.
Corporate earnings data dominated domestic sentiment‚ against international stock markets which were generally positive.
BHP Billiton (BIL) fell in excess of 4% after the global resources company posted a 43% decline in headline earnings in the six months to December while AngloGold Ashanti (ANG) dropped more than 2% after registering a drop in full year profit.
“The consolidation trend continues. Some areas of the market have run too far‚ too fast‚” said independent analyst Ian Cruickshanks.
The All Share index is flat for the month‚ after gaining more than 3% last month.
Leading European markets were generally higher‚ with UK’s FTSE 100 gaining 0.33% at 12:00.
Among individual shares on the local bourse‚ BHP Billiton dropped 3.96% to R297.25 and Anglo American (AGL) shed 1.47% to R270. AngloGold Ashanti (ANG) dropped 2.89% to R233.94 and newcomer Sibanye Gold (SGL) shed 6.25% to R12.75‚ which is below its listing price of R13.05.
WBHO (WBHO) was down 2.53% to R150.11 and Basil Read Holdings (BSR) gave up 1.83% to R10.70.
Shoprite regained some of its recent losses to climb 1.30% to R174.75.