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Platinum, resources lead JSE lower

JohannesburgI-Net Bridge - The JSE ended Monday in negative territory on the back of profit-taking. Platinum stocks and resources led the bourse down.

At 17:00 local time, the JSE all share index lost 0.84%, with platinum miners giving up 1.49%, and resources shedding 1.27%. Gold miners wavered 0.91%, while industrials shed 0.63%. Banks were 0.56% weaker and financials were down 0.39%.

The rand was trading at R7.02 to the dollar from R7.03 at the JSE's close on Friday. Gold was quoted at $1 343.82 a troy ounce from $1 344.09/oz at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was at $1 815.50/oz from $1 826.50/oz before.

A local trader said that the JSE's movements were "uncharacteristic" when compared with global markets. He added that it was surprising that resources were under "a lot of pressure" despite dollar weakness.

Dow Jones Newswires reports that US stocks edged up slightly on Monday as investors traded cautiously at the start of a heavy week of earnings and key events, including a Federal Reserve meeting and the president's State of the Union address.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 17 points, to 11 890.

Intel was the measure's strongest component, up 1.9%, after the chipmaker announced a boost to its stock buyback programme.

The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.4% to 2 699. The Standard & Poor's 500 index edged up 0.1% to 1 285.

With no economic data on Monday's schedule, investors held back from making major bets ahead of key reports and events due in the coming days.

On the earnings front, American Express and Texas Instruments were due to report on Monday afternoon, while 3M, Verizon Communications, AT&T, Caterpillar, Chevron and Ford are also on this week's docket.

On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama is expected to call for a comprehensive overhaul of the country's unwieldy tax code in his State of the Union address to Congress. The president is expected to use the speech to make the case for a simplification of corporate tax rates, a process that could see rates lowered and the raft of deductions companies can take advantage of reduced or removed altogether.

Also on Tuesday, the US Federal Reserve will begin a two-day meeting, with a statement to be released at its conclusion on Wednesday afternoon.

Investors will be keen to see the central bank's latest assessment of the economy, especially amid a fresh push for the Fed to set an official inflation goal. The Fed has said its goal is inflation of about 2%, but after years of internal debate on the subject, it has not adopted an official target.

On Friday, investors will get the government's first estimate of fourth quarter economic growth.
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Rand - Dollar
18.94
-0.2%
Rand - Pound
23.91
-0.1%
Rand - Euro
20.43
+0.2%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.34
+0.1%
Rand - Yen
0.13
-0.2%
Platinum
910.50
+1.5%
Palladium
1,011.50
+1.0%
Gold
2,221.35
+1.2%
Silver
24.87
+0.9%
Brent Crude
86.09
-0.2%
Top 40
68,346
+1.0%
All Share
74,536
+0.8%
Resource 10
57,251
+2.8%
Industrial 25
103,936
+0.6%
Financial 15
16,502
-0.1%
All JSE data delayed by at least 15 minutes Iress logo
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