Related Articles
Top Stories
Feb 13 2012 12:15
Miner Xstrata says it has brought forward maintenance on two furnaces to assist Eskom to save power.
Feb 13 2012 10:43
Although jobs were created, the economy is still 420 000 jobs short of the peak employment level before the 2009 global financial crisis, says Adcorp.
Feb 13 2012 07:58
Greek lawmakers have approved a new round of drastic austerity measures after a long day of street battles between police and protesters left dozens injured.
Johannesburg - The JSE slipped into the red by noon on Tuesday, in line with international markets as participants across the globe took profits after recent upward moves.
However, gold counters recovered from last session's heavy sell off and were the only stocks to remain in the black.
By 11:57, the JSE all share index had lost 1.64%. Resources were off 1.51% and platinum miners gave up 3.95%. However, gold counters gained 6.04%. Banks shed 2.92%, financials gave up 2.42% and industrials weakened 1.31%.
The rand was last bid at R9.16 to the dollar, from R9.06 when the JSE closed on Monday. Gold was quoted at $879.65/oz a troy ounce from $870.13/oz at the JSE's last close, and platinum was at $1 160/oz from its previous close of $1 140.50/oz.
"We have moved lower and it's not surprising. We have had some big moves, percentage-wise the moves have been extremely good," a local trader said.
"Now we are seeing profit taking worldwide. We became overdone and now everyone is taking profits. At some point we will turn up again.
"Once again gold stocks are up after being hammered last night. This just goes to show the volatility. We see some sharp drops and then people come back and we see bargain hunting.
"Asian markets were off this morning and Dow futures are down, and maybe that is why we are accelerating in terms of percentage," he said.
Dow Jones Newswires reports that the FTSE 100's decline gathered pace with investors consolidating gains and struggling for direction. Elsewhere, UK industrial production for February came in close to forecasts with a 1% month-on-month contraction, but the outlook was still not good. Alan Clarke, economist at BNP Paribas, said this, along with last week's PMI survey for
manufacturing, reasonably suggest that the pace of contraction is slowing, but "the likelihood of output turning positive remains a long way off", he said. US chain store sales are due at 11:45 GMT, Johnson Redbook at 12:55 GMT.
The FTSE 100 was last down 1.22%.
US stocks are expected to open lower, as the month-long rally seems to be running out of steam, said David Morrison, strategist at GFT.
He called the DJIA to open down 36 points at 7940 and the S&P 500 down 4 at 831.5. "Whether this is a breather before indices continue upwards or the completion of a bear market rally is difficult to tell," he said.
- I-Net Bridge