Johannesburg - The JSE remained in the red at
midday on Monday, in line with the trend on global markets. Resources
stocks, and particularly platinum miners, led the downside, while
banking shares were also down more than 1%.
At noon, the JSE
All Share [JSE:J203] index was 0.83% lower, with
resources off 1.11%, platinum miners easing 1.33% and gold stocks 0.11%
softer. Banks shed 1.2%, financials gave up 0.87% and industrial
counters declined 0.62%.
The rand was at 7.83 to the dollar from 7.77 at the JSE's
close on Friday. Gold was quoted at $1 720.65 a troy ounce from $1 727.61/oz at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was at $1 601/oz, from $1 615/oz before.
A local equities trader said the JSE was generally following the global trend.
"There's not too much green on the screen. But the rand has
weakened, so the gold shares are not doing too badly - so that's not too
disappointing," she said.
She noted that one sector that was holding up was the retail
sector, with a couple of the shares, notably Truworths, JD Group and
Lewis, showing some strength. But, she noted, these shares had been
under a bit of pressure last week.
"All eyes are on developments in the rest of the world today," she concluded.
Dow Jones Newswires reports that most Asian markets fell on
Monday as investors turned cautious ahead of a key summit of European
leaders later in the day and as Chinese stocks were hit by
disappointment over a lack of policy easing from Beijing.
The drop on mainland Chinese bourses applied pressure on Hong
Kong, where shares fell for the first time in seven trading days.
Taiwanese stocks bucked the trend, rising sharply as the market there
reopened after a long Lunar New Year holiday.
The Hang Seng Index tumbled 1.7% to 20,160.41 in Hong Kong,
while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.5% to 2,285.04 as investors
returned after last week's Lunar New Year holiday. The Nikkei ended down
0.54%.
The broad losses came ahead of a summit of European leaders in
Brussels Monday, as questions surrounded Greek finances.
The Financial Times reported that Germany was pushing to
institute European Union oversight of Greece's budget, which Greek
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos later said would be unnecessary.
In London, the FTSE100 was last 0.8% weaker.