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Johannesburg - The JSE closed in the red on Wednesday‚ in line with world markets‚ ending a period of good runs which was due for a correction.
Global markets were softer due to jitters about whether the US Federal Reserve would stop or slow its cheap money policies‚ which would push world markets lower.
At 17:00‚ the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index closed 0.25% down at 40 793.81 points‚ with solid gains in gold miners offset by losses in retail and banking counters.
Retailers were the biggest losers‚ dropping 2.11%‚ while banks gave back 1.28% after recent gains. The gold index added 2.85% on a firmer gold price.
Spot gold was quoted above the $1‚400/oz level at $1‚405.11/oz at 5pm local time and spot platinum was 1.51% firmer at $1.512/oz.
“The JSE ran too hard recently and the market is just looking for an excuse to pull back. We are still not out of the woods as the Japanese Nikkei is still sold off aggressively‚” a local trader said.
“US jobs data was a bit of a blip today and factory orders there missed expectations. All eyes are now on the jobs data due on Friday‚” he said.
“Renewed rand selling today helped commodity prices and commodity counters firmer. Gold counters were attracting more buyers as the US economic picture is not showing a lot of improvement‚” he said.
European markets were broadly lower in late trade‚ with London’s FTSE 100 index seen 1.78% softer at 16:47pm local time and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.52% softer in early trade.
US stocks opened broadly lower after a disappointing employment report bolstered hopes of continued US central bank easing‚ Dow Jones Newswires reported.
Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and Moody's Analytics reported 135‚000 new private-sector jobs in May‚ below the 170 000 expected.
“The ADP report is not an accurate predictor of the official government payrolls report‚ so traders are reserving judgement for now and would rather keep their fingers on the sell-button until Friday’s jobs data‚” said Ishaq Siddiqi‚ a market strategist at ETX Capital in London.
“Fed-speak on Tuesday by ‘hawkish’ Kansas City Fed head Esther George rattled nerves as she believes unwinding stimulus is the next step for the central bank and warned on the effects of cheap money in the system. Similarly‚ Dallas Fed head Fisher was on TV yesterday saying the central bank cannot live in fear of the market showing its discontent once the Fed takes away ‘monetary cocaine’‚” he said.
Among individual shares on the JSE‚ gold miners Harmony (HAR) surged 5.40% to R42 and Gold Fields (GFI) picked up 3.27% to R61.28.
Impala Platinum (IMP) nudged up 0.27% to R99.77 after the company said a one-day illegal strike at a shaft in Rustenburg had ended and operations had resumed on Wednesday.
Insurer Sanlam (SLM) ended 2.16% higher at R48.22‚ after reporting new business volumes up 30% at R49bn for the four months ended April.
Investment company Brait (BAT) added 3.26% to R38 after reporting normalised headline earnings per share up 34% to R5.79 per share in the year ended March from R4.33 in the previous year.
Global markets were softer due to jitters about whether the US Federal Reserve would stop or slow its cheap money policies‚ which would push world markets lower.
At 17:00‚ the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index closed 0.25% down at 40 793.81 points‚ with solid gains in gold miners offset by losses in retail and banking counters.
Retailers were the biggest losers‚ dropping 2.11%‚ while banks gave back 1.28% after recent gains. The gold index added 2.85% on a firmer gold price.
Spot gold was quoted above the $1‚400/oz level at $1‚405.11/oz at 5pm local time and spot platinum was 1.51% firmer at $1.512/oz.
“The JSE ran too hard recently and the market is just looking for an excuse to pull back. We are still not out of the woods as the Japanese Nikkei is still sold off aggressively‚” a local trader said.
“US jobs data was a bit of a blip today and factory orders there missed expectations. All eyes are now on the jobs data due on Friday‚” he said.
“Renewed rand selling today helped commodity prices and commodity counters firmer. Gold counters were attracting more buyers as the US economic picture is not showing a lot of improvement‚” he said.
European markets were broadly lower in late trade‚ with London’s FTSE 100 index seen 1.78% softer at 16:47pm local time and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.52% softer in early trade.
US stocks opened broadly lower after a disappointing employment report bolstered hopes of continued US central bank easing‚ Dow Jones Newswires reported.
Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and Moody's Analytics reported 135‚000 new private-sector jobs in May‚ below the 170 000 expected.
“The ADP report is not an accurate predictor of the official government payrolls report‚ so traders are reserving judgement for now and would rather keep their fingers on the sell-button until Friday’s jobs data‚” said Ishaq Siddiqi‚ a market strategist at ETX Capital in London.
“Fed-speak on Tuesday by ‘hawkish’ Kansas City Fed head Esther George rattled nerves as she believes unwinding stimulus is the next step for the central bank and warned on the effects of cheap money in the system. Similarly‚ Dallas Fed head Fisher was on TV yesterday saying the central bank cannot live in fear of the market showing its discontent once the Fed takes away ‘monetary cocaine’‚” he said.
Among individual shares on the JSE‚ gold miners Harmony (HAR) surged 5.40% to R42 and Gold Fields (GFI) picked up 3.27% to R61.28.
Impala Platinum (IMP) nudged up 0.27% to R99.77 after the company said a one-day illegal strike at a shaft in Rustenburg had ended and operations had resumed on Wednesday.
Insurer Sanlam (SLM) ended 2.16% higher at R48.22‚ after reporting new business volumes up 30% at R49bn for the four months ended April.
Investment company Brait (BAT) added 3.26% to R38 after reporting normalised headline earnings per share up 34% to R5.79 per share in the year ended March from R4.33 in the previous year.
