Johannesburg - The JSE was trading slightly lower on
Wednesday‚ in line with Asian markets‚ with concern about the looming US fiscal
cliff weighing on world market sentiment and offsetting the positive news of
progress made on the Greek debt situation\
At 9:39am‚ the All Share [JSE:J203] index was down 0.34% to
37‚678.10 points‚ with the gold index giving back 1.29% after a recent run
higher‚ and banks showing some upside with a 0.26% rise.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 1.22% lower and the Hang Seng
index was trading 0.78% softer in Hong Kong.
“Global markets continue to trade cautiously this morning.
Asian equities are getting hurt‚ while EUR/USD is edging down towards the
1.2900 level‚ having failed to break 1.3000 after the Greek news. Event risk is
fairly limited today‚” Rand Merchant Bank said in a morning note.
“Commodity prices are searching for direction amid
heightened worries over the US fiscal cliff and renewed fears about the global
economic outlook after the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) sharply lowered its global growth forecast for 2013 GDP
(gross domestic product) to 1.4% from 2.2%‚” the bank said.