Johannesburg - Stocks opened in the
red on Tuesday having taking direction from Asian markets which were lower
in the wake of a fall on Wall Street on Monday.
At 09:19 the JSE all share index had lost 1.35%, with resources losing
2.07%, platinum counters shedding 2.13% and gold miners falling 3.56%.
Banks declined 1.01%, financials slipped 0.89% and industrials weakened
0.86%.
The rand was bid at 7.55 to the dollar from 7.53 just before the JSE
closed on Monday. Gold was quoted at $1 042.27 a troy ounce from
$1 054.42/oz just before the JSE's last close, and platinum was at
$1 335/oz, from $1 328/oz at its previous close.
"We are down sharply this morning and that is on the back of Asia which
was down this morning and a weaker close in the US," a trader said.
"Markets are quite overbought at these levels and now we are seeing a
strong pullback. The miners are leading us down. I would have expected the
weak rand to help, but we are just seeing a sell off across the board."
"For the day we will look to the budget policy meeting as well as
consumer confidence data out in the US later in the day. US futures are up
at the moment, but it is still too early to say what will happen," she said.
"At the moment we are just seeing a pullback on the back of world
markets, hopefully the rand will support us later on," she added.
Dow Jones Newswire reports bank capital worries that weighed on Bank of
America and a drop in oil prices that hurt Alcoa, Chevron and other energy
and materials firms sent the DJIA down more than 100 points on Monday.
After starting out surging on Monday, stocks turned around in the late
morning and closed well to the downside. The DJIA ended off 104.22 points,
or 1.05%, at 9867.96, marking its first set of back-to-back triple-digit
losses since June 16.
Within the index, Bank of America led the decliners on concerns US
regulators are pushing the banking giant to raise more capital.
BofA closed
down 82 cents, or 5.1%, at 15.40, while other financials, such as JPMorgan
Chase, off 1.41, or 3.1%, at 43.82, also closed lower.
The S&P 500 closed down 12.66, or 1.17%, at 1066.94, including a drop of
1.5% for energy firms and 2.5% for materials. DJIA components Alcoa and
Chevron were particularly weak, closing down 45 cents, or 3.3%, at 13.28,
and 1.23, or 1.6%, at 75.45, respectively. Setting off their declines was a
2.3% drop for oil prices and a decrease in prices of gold, silver and copper
on the session.
Asian shares are trading lower on Tuesday after Wall Street's decline,
with energy-related stocks hit by a fall in crude oil prices.
In Japan, the Nikkei ended down 1.5% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was last
off 1.5%.
European stock markets are likely to start mixed after the rout on Wall
Street and follow-on losses in US futures. A slate of earnings reports could
contribute to volatility.
- I-Net Bridge