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Johannesburg - The JSE closed on a sour note on Friday, punctuating a week that was dominated by a flurry of disappointing US economic data that raised fears about the longevity of the US economic recovery.
Concerns over the disappointing economic statistics from the US may have led to potential risk-aversion and uncertainty, said Andrew Todd, an equity derivatives trader at Imara SP Reid. Resources, which led the sell-off, took the biggest hit as the rand remained strong, making them less appealing to investors, Todd said.
By 17:00 local time, the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index had dropped 0.95%, with platinum miners falling 1.63%, resources easing 1.34% and gold miners shedding 0.58%. Banks also erased 1.40%, financials were off 0.94% and industrials slid 0.66%.
The rand was last bid at 6.72 to the dollar from 6.75 at the JSE's close on Thursday. Gold was quoted at US$1 537.66 a troy ounce from US$1 526.68/oz at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was at $1 813.50/oz, from $1 812.70/oz previously.
Todd said that the market could bounce, and indicated that the 28,000 mark in top-40 futures was the key technical level. He said the market had been seeing a continued flow of poor data from the US, noting that the latest US nonfarm payroll figures were just the latest to disappoint.
Dow Jones Newswires reported that US stocks dropped on Friday as a dismal jobs report added to the drumbeat of investor jitters, although encouraging service-sector data kept the declines in check.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 81 points, or 0.7%, to 12 167.
The government's employment report showed that hiring by US companies slowed dramatically in May, while the unemployment rate kept rising. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 54 000 last month as the private sector posted the smallest job gain in nearly a year, according to the US Labour Department. Payrolls data for the previous two months were also revised down.
The jobless rate, which is obtained from a separate household survey, unexpectedly rose to 9.1% in May from 9.0% in April.
Running against the tide of disappointing May numbers, data on the US services sector strengthened in the month, according to a report from the Institute for Supply Management.
Still, the disappointing jobs report follows a long string of weak economic data that have fuelled anxiety on Wall Street. The deteriorating economic conditions have coincided with the looming end of the US Federal Reserve's quantitative easing programme, which has weighed on stocks.
Concerns over the disappointing economic statistics from the US may have led to potential risk-aversion and uncertainty, said Andrew Todd, an equity derivatives trader at Imara SP Reid. Resources, which led the sell-off, took the biggest hit as the rand remained strong, making them less appealing to investors, Todd said.
By 17:00 local time, the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index had dropped 0.95%, with platinum miners falling 1.63%, resources easing 1.34% and gold miners shedding 0.58%. Banks also erased 1.40%, financials were off 0.94% and industrials slid 0.66%.
The rand was last bid at 6.72 to the dollar from 6.75 at the JSE's close on Thursday. Gold was quoted at US$1 537.66 a troy ounce from US$1 526.68/oz at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was at $1 813.50/oz, from $1 812.70/oz previously.
Todd said that the market could bounce, and indicated that the 28,000 mark in top-40 futures was the key technical level. He said the market had been seeing a continued flow of poor data from the US, noting that the latest US nonfarm payroll figures were just the latest to disappoint.
Dow Jones Newswires reported that US stocks dropped on Friday as a dismal jobs report added to the drumbeat of investor jitters, although encouraging service-sector data kept the declines in check.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 81 points, or 0.7%, to 12 167.
The government's employment report showed that hiring by US companies slowed dramatically in May, while the unemployment rate kept rising. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 54 000 last month as the private sector posted the smallest job gain in nearly a year, according to the US Labour Department. Payrolls data for the previous two months were also revised down.
The jobless rate, which is obtained from a separate household survey, unexpectedly rose to 9.1% in May from 9.0% in April.
Running against the tide of disappointing May numbers, data on the US services sector strengthened in the month, according to a report from the Institute for Supply Management.
Still, the disappointing jobs report follows a long string of weak economic data that have fuelled anxiety on Wall Street. The deteriorating economic conditions have coincided with the looming end of the US Federal Reserve's quantitative easing programme, which has weighed on stocks.
