JSE breaks six-day climb

Johannesburg - The JSE ended sharply lower on Wednesday, reversing its recent impressive gains. The local bourse broke its six-day climb and saw investors taking profits as global markets shook off the excitement from the outcome of the US presidential election.

The JSE earlier showed impressive gains, moving in line with rallying Asian markets, which also picked up on the positive sentiment from the US.

By 17:00 however, the JSE's all share index had fallen 3.23%, weighed down by a 3.18% decline in resources and a 2.34% fall in platinum stocks.

However, gold miners edged up 0.98%. Banks were down 4.66%, financials lost 2.95% and industrials shed 3.41%.

The rand was bid at 9.65 to the dollar from 9.85 when the JSE closed on Tuesday, while gold was last quoted at $755.65 a troy ounce from $742.15/oz at the JSE's last close.

The platinum price was at $880/oz, up 4.95% from its previous close of $838.50/oz and Brent crude was at $64.87 from its close of $66.44.

"The losses were inevitable after the recent gains," a local equities trader said.

"There is profit taking in the market," he said, adding that the euphoria from the US election had died down and markets were returning to their "normal" activity.

"At this stage markets are at a consolidation stage just to digest the gains we saw over the last week or so," the trader explained.

Dow Jones Newswires reports that US stocks opened lower on the jobless data released.

The DJIA was last trading 1.50% or 144.64 points lower. In London the FTSE 100 was last down 1.58% at 4566.42.

Asian markets rose broadly on Wednesday in the hopes that Barack Obama's decisive victory in the US presidential election could result in quick action by lawmakers to jump-start the economy. But many ended shy of their midday highs as observers pointed to the difficulties lying ahead.

Tokyo's 4.5% rise led the way, with South Korea's benchmark index rising 2.4% and Hong Kong's finishing 3.2% higher.

- I-Net Bridge