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Johannesburg - The JSE remained on the back foot
during midday trading on Friday, tracking negative global investor
sentiment.
But gold shares bucked the trend, rallying on the back of the firmer spot price of the yellow metal, and rand weakness.
At 12:02 local time, the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was down 1.13% to 33 158.53 points, with platinum sector losing 1.68%, resources shedding 0.71%, while gold counters jumped 3.60%.
Financials were down 1.49%, banking stocks fell 2.17% and industrials were off 1.28%.
The rand weakened to 8.35 to the US dollar, from 8.33 at the JSE's close on Thursday, while gold was quoted at $1 592.17 a troy ounce from $1 571.50/oz at the JSE's previous close and platinum was at $1 462.50/oz, from $1 455.20/oz at the previous session.
"There is a lot of angst around, not just in eurozone. The US is still struggling with structural unemployment problems. There are also economic growth concerns in China. With all these combined, market players worry that these could potentially derail global economic growth," said Graeme Körner, portfolio manager at Körner Perspective.
European stocks were lower as investors opted for safety over risk after Moody's downgraded several Spanish banks and Fitch cut its credit rating on Greece, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
The UK's FTSE 100 index was down 1.19% to 5 274.86 points at about noon local time.
Asian markets also fell heavily, with Japan, Australia and Hong Kong all hitting four-month lows, as poor US manufacturing data added to rising worries over Europe.
Japan's Nikkei ended 2.99% in the red while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed 1.30% lower.
However, US stock futures gained ground as investors looked ahead to Facebook Inc's initial public offering (IPO), although worries about Europe threatened to cast a cloud over the much-anticipated trading debut of the social network site.
Facebook late on Thursday priced its IPO at $38 a share, coming in at the high end of its estimated range with a debut valued at $16 billion.
The size of the deal makes Facebook the third-largest IPO ever in the US market and the biggest debut since Visa's $17.8 billion offering in March 2008, according to Renaissance Capital. The offering marks the largest tech IPO on record.
But gold shares bucked the trend, rallying on the back of the firmer spot price of the yellow metal, and rand weakness.
At 12:02 local time, the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was down 1.13% to 33 158.53 points, with platinum sector losing 1.68%, resources shedding 0.71%, while gold counters jumped 3.60%.
Financials were down 1.49%, banking stocks fell 2.17% and industrials were off 1.28%.
The rand weakened to 8.35 to the US dollar, from 8.33 at the JSE's close on Thursday, while gold was quoted at $1 592.17 a troy ounce from $1 571.50/oz at the JSE's previous close and platinum was at $1 462.50/oz, from $1 455.20/oz at the previous session.
"There is a lot of angst around, not just in eurozone. The US is still struggling with structural unemployment problems. There are also economic growth concerns in China. With all these combined, market players worry that these could potentially derail global economic growth," said Graeme Körner, portfolio manager at Körner Perspective.
European stocks were lower as investors opted for safety over risk after Moody's downgraded several Spanish banks and Fitch cut its credit rating on Greece, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
The UK's FTSE 100 index was down 1.19% to 5 274.86 points at about noon local time.
Asian markets also fell heavily, with Japan, Australia and Hong Kong all hitting four-month lows, as poor US manufacturing data added to rising worries over Europe.
Japan's Nikkei ended 2.99% in the red while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed 1.30% lower.
However, US stock futures gained ground as investors looked ahead to Facebook Inc's initial public offering (IPO), although worries about Europe threatened to cast a cloud over the much-anticipated trading debut of the social network site.
Facebook late on Thursday priced its IPO at $38 a share, coming in at the high end of its estimated range with a debut valued at $16 billion.
The size of the deal makes Facebook the third-largest IPO ever in the US market and the biggest debut since Visa's $17.8 billion offering in March 2008, according to Renaissance Capital. The offering marks the largest tech IPO on record.
