Johannesburg - The JSE share market ended weaker on Wednesday after a fairly choppy session as global equities geared themselves for the European Central Bank (ECB) policy meeting on Thursday.
Markets are betting that the euro region central bank will unveil a bond-buying plan to lower sovereign bond yields of the troubled eurozone countries.
At 17:00‚ the JSE all-share index was down 0.33% to 35 045.55 points‚ but gold index lifted 2.49%‚ boosted by the resolution of the labour dispute at Gold Fields’ Kloof Driefontein Complex following an illegal strike since last Wednesday.
The platinum index trimmed its losses to 0.96%‚ helped by the surge in the Northam Platinum
[JSE:NHM] stock price after the Public Investment Corporation increased its stake in the platinum producer.
“After a relatively dull August‚ global markets are set to be stirred by a number of key events this month: the ECB policy meeting‚ the Fed policy meeting‚ the German Constitutional Court decision on the legality of a second eurozone bailout fund‚ the Dutch elections‚ and a decision on whether to keep providing bailout loans to Greece‚” said analysts at RMB in a note.
“While these events will introduce uncertainty‚ we don’t expect them to derail our core outlook for the global and local economy.”
Among individual stocks‚ Sasol
[JSE:SOL] dropped 2.75% to R352.52‚ but Northam was up 4.34% to R28.85‚ while Lonmin
[JSE:LON] was off 4.88% to R71.70.
Kumba
[JSE:KIO] shed 4.60% to R462.66 and Exxaro
[JSE:EXX] lost 1.18% to R146.25.
Telkom
[JSE:TKG] gave up 2.99% to R17.82‚ and retailer The Foschini Group
[JSE:FOS] was down 3.44% to R130.25 and Woolworths Holdongs
[JSE:WHL] dipped 3.21% to R59.43.