Johannesburg - The JSE slid at the start of trading on
Monday, tracking negative global sentiment, following the release of the
lacklustre Chinese preliminary manufacturing data.
At 09:19 local time, the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was
down 0.50% to 34,045.91 points, with resources shedding 1.10%, platinum shares
losing 1.03% and gold counters dipping 0.31%. Financials were 0.42% in the red,
as were banking stocks, down 0.57%, while industrials slipped 0.14%.
The rand was trading at R7.83 to the US dollar, from R7.80
at the JSE's close on Friday. Gold was quoted at $1 635.30 a troy ounce from $1
640.31/oz at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was at $1 574/oz, from $1
580.50/oz at the previous session.
"The problem area at the moment is in the resources
space, with latest Chinese manufacturing data not making things any easier. It
is mostly the metals that are pulling us back. As for the other sectors like
industrials, I think they have done fairly well over the last couple
months," said Ferdi Heyneke, portfolio manager at Afrifocus Securities.
In Asia, equity markets were mostly lower on Monday amid a
lack of positive catalysts, while manufacturing data in China failed to dispel
concerns of weakness in Asia's largest economy, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average declined 0.20%, while Hong
Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 1.09%, China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.2%.
China's preliminary HSBC Manufacturing Purchasing Managers'
Index showed a rise to a two-month high of 49.1 in April compared with a final
reading of 48.3 in March.
Market participants pointed out that while there was an
improvement, the index remained in contractionary territory for the sixth
straight month.
European stocks opened lower as investors consolidated some
of last week's gains ahead of some key events later in the week, while
increased political uncertainty in Europe was expected to weigh on sentiment.
London's FTSE 100 index was down 0.77% points to 5,727.77
points. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were weaker in screen trade.