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Johannesburg - The JSE ended in the red virtually
across the board on Thursday amid weaker international markets, tracking Dow
futures lower in particular.
A local trader pointed out that even at its current levels, the rand
could not keep commodities in the black.
At 17:00 the JSE all share index weakened 0.56%, with resources losing
1.28%. Platinum miners eased 0.52% and gold producers gave up 2.10%.
Banks were down 0.60% and financials declined 0.36%, but industrials
collected 0.17%.
The rand was bid at 7.53 to the dollar, from 7.43 when the JSE closed on
Wednesday. Gold was quoted at $1 136.35 a troy ounce from $1 147.45 at
the JSE's last close, and platinum was at $1 432/oz, from $1 437/oz at
its previous close.
A local trader said: "We tracked international markets down this
afternoon, with an eye on Dow futures in particular. Not even the rand at
its current 7.50 level against the dollar can keep commodities in the black.
In a nutshell, weakness is across the board."
Dow Jones Newswires reported that US stocks opened lower Thursday as an
analyst downgrade weighed on a slate of chip companies and on economic
worries ahead of some morning reports.
Early on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded down 112
points, or 1.1%, to 10 316.
For much of a two-week run in the major stock market indexes, that
pushed all three to new highs on the year, materials and energy companies
have been at the forefront. Broadly, the gains stemmed from an upturn in
global economic sentiment, as well as a slide in the dollar.
On Thursday, some of that appeared to be waning with the dollar index
in the green, while oil prices and those of several metals slid. Oil
recently traded down 64 cents to $78.94 a barrel.
On the economic front, a weekly jobless claims figure that came in
nearly as expected failed to offset some of the increased pessimism
surrounding the world economy that was weighing on markets.
In its weekly report, the Labour Department said the number of US
workers filing new claims for jobless benefits last week remained unchanged
from the prior week, while total claims lasting more than one week declined.
On tap for later in the session will be leading indicators for October
and the November Philadelphia Fed survey, both due at 10:00. - I-Net Bridge