Johannesburg - The JSE slipped on Thursday‚ ending a three-day winning run‚ which lifted the all-share and top-40 indices to record highs.
At 5pm‚ the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was 0.60% weaker at 37 051.95 and the Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] index shed 0.65% to 32 820.97.
AngloGold Ashanti was the worst performer in the top-40 index - dropping more than 4%‚ dragging the gold index down with it - after Standard & Poor’s placed the gold producer on CreditWatch‚ due to the continued wildcat strikes in SA.
“It would appear that SA is not yet out of the woods in terms of strike resolutions in the mining space‚ which gave the markets cause to take gentle profits‚” said Ryan Wibberley‚ equity dealer at Investec Asset Management.
Shaun Murison‚ market analyst at IG‚ said the consensus miss on weekly jobless claims out of the US provided an excuse to take money off the table in a market which has been in a prolonged state of overbought conditions.
Leading European stock markets were marginally higher in late trade‚ with the UK’s FTSE 100 nudging up 0.08%‚ while the Dow Industrial Average was flat.
Among individuals counters on the JSE‚ AngloGold Ashanti was down 4.21% to R288‚ Gold Fields slid 2.75% to R103.57 and African Rainbow Minerals lost 3.51% to R171.09.
Richemont shed 2.70% to R56.21.
Banking group Standard Bank gave up 1.60% to R104.60‚ while rival Capitec bucked the downward trend‚ gaining 1% to R204.78.