Johannesburg - The JSE extended its losses in late trade on Monday‚ with the downside led by mining shares. The local market is being driven by negative headlines coming out of the US‚ Europe and China.
At 16:51 local time‚ when the JSE data feed stopped‚ the JSE All Share
[JSE:J203] index was down 0.87% at 33 930.00 points‚ with resources losing 1.47%‚ gold shares shedding 1.67% and platinum counters down 1.45%.
Financials were flat (-0.04%)‚ while banking stocks gained 0.39% but industrials slid 0.84%.
Due to a technical glitch final indices were unavailable.
The rand was trading at 8.26 to the US dollar‚ from 8.25 at the JSE’s close on Friday‚ while gold changed hands at $1 587.88 a troy ounce from $1 588.24/oz at the JSE’s previous close and platinum was quoted at $1 448.50/oz‚ from $1 455.50/oz previously.
“We saw US job and payrolls data lower than expected on Friday‚ which were not good for our market. Also‚ the Chinese prime minister commenting over the weekend on the slower growth situation in China didn’t help. This is not good for our markets as we are a commodity based economy and as soon as the Chinese economy slows down‚ they import less of our commodities‚ which puts downward pressure on local companies’ margins‚” said Martin Strauss‚ stockbroker at PSG Konsult.
Meanwhile‚ pessimism about the start of the second-quarter earnings season and Europe’s continuing debt crisis weighed on US stocks‚ which extended their decline into a third-straight day on Monday‚ Dow Jones Newswires reported.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 57 points‚ or 0.5%‚ to 12‚715 in mid-morning trade and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index gave up five points‚ or 0.4%‚ to 1‚350.
Shares of Alcoa eased 0.7%. The blue-chip aluminum company is to report second-quarter results after the closing bell‚ marking the unofficial kickoff of the reporting season.
On the European front‚ markets were mostly lower‚ with the Stoxx Europe 600 slipping about 0.3%‚ as investors were sceptical that a meeting of eurozone finance ministers later on Monday would make any progress in stabilising the eurozone’s debt crisis.
Eurozone finance ministers are discussing details on how to bail out the Spanish banking system‚ as well as the creation of a common regulator for the region's banks.
Asian markets were broadly lower‚ led by the 2.4% tumble in China’s Shanghai Composite to a six-month low after Premier Wen Jiabao said over the weekend that there was “huge pressure” on the Chinese economy. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average shed 1.4%.