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Johannesburg - South African share prices eased from a record high in the previous session led by gold mining stocks such as Harmony and investors will be watching employment statistics out of the United States for direction.
Africa's largest producer, AngloGold Ashanti and third-placed Gold Fields shed 2% each to R258.06 and R97.62 respectively, hit by a decline in the price of gold.
Banking shares moved in the opposite direction after data showing that jobless claims in the world's biggest economy fell last week boosted expectations that the US non-farm payroll report due out on Friday would beat expectations.
"Financials have fared well and looking at the poor performance of gold, people are cutting off resources and going more into financials," said Nilan Morar, Global Trader's head of trading.
"A bit of nervousness creeping into the market in the afternoon certainly in anticipation in case that number is poor tomorrow," he said, referring to the US job announcement.
The Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] index fell 0.35% to 30 338.56 and the All Share [JSE:J203] scaled back from its record high hit in the previous session, falling 0.31% to 34 375.51. It touched a life high of 34 647.73 on Wednesday.
"Yes, we can expect it to hit another record tomorrow," said Michael Carlsson, a trader at Consillium Capital, adding that he expected relatively low valuations to attract value investors.
Standard Group, Africa's biggest lender by market value, gained nearly 3% to R116.87 and Nedbank climbed 2.4% to R172.54.
Steel maker ArcelorMittal shed 1.9% to R58.22 after saying prices for some of its products would fall by over 3% this month.
Nearly 190 million shares were traded, according to preliminary statistics by the bourse, from 203 million shares that changed hands on Wednesday.
