Johannesburg - The JSE share market slid to a two-week low at noon‚ led by an aggressive pullback in general mining counters‚ amid the bearish tone on world equity markets.
At 12:36 local time‚ the JSE all-share index was down 0.91% at 35 712.95 points‚ with gold shares coming off 2.89%‚ the platinum index dropping 2.87% and resources shedding 2.04%.
Shares in Anglo Platinum
[JSE:AMS] dropped more than 5% after the world’s largest platinum producer said it would initiate disciplinary action if miners currently participating in the illegal strike at its Rustenburg operations did not return to work by Thursday.
“The labour unrest in the mining sector poses a real threat to the players involved. Additionally‚ we don’t see a major response in asset prices following the market stimuli by major central banks‚ which points to an apprehension regarding the direction of the global economy‚” said Ian Cruickshanks‚ market commentator at Nedbank Capital.
Leading European shares were decidedly weaker at noon‚ as were their Asian counterparts by their close of trade.
Among local shares‚ Anglo American
[JSE:AGL] shed 2.95% to R245.33‚ Anglo American Platinum dropped 5.27% to R406.40 and Aquarius Platinum
[JSE:AQP] was off 5.84% to R5.48.
AngloGold Ashanti
[JSE:ANG] dropped 3.23% to R289 and Harmony Gold Mining Company
[JSE:HAR] was down 3.94% to R68.97.
Exxaro Resources
[JSE:EXX] slumped 5.16% to R154.12 and African Rainbow Minerals
[JSE:ARM] was down 2.08% to R161.55.
Among industrials‚ The Bidvest Group
[JSE:BVT] lost 2.14% to R205.50‚ while financial services group African Bank Investments
[JSE:ABL] shed 3.46% to R31.85 and construction group Murray & Roberts Holdings
[JSE:MUR] lost 2.49% to R22.32.