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Johannesburg - The JSE slipped on Friday‚ weighed by big losses in the gold‚ banking and retail sectors.
At 10:00‚ the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was down 0.19% to 39 008.52 points. The Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] blue-chip index was flat‚ while banking and financial indices gave up 1.43% and 1.03% respectively‚ with gold shares down 2.51%.
“The 14% drop in African Bank Investments’ stock is hard to ignore and has market participants worried about health of unsecured lending in this country‚” said Newtrading trader Devin Shutte.
Abil’s share price fell more than 14% to its weakest level in more than four years after the unsecured lender said late on Thursday it anticipated its half-year earnings to end March 2013 to fall by as much as 28%.
Top European equity markets were modestly higher‚ with the UK FTSE 100 edging up 0.10%. On the global level‚ the market focus will be the US nonfarm payroll data this afternoon.
Among individual shares on the JSE Northam Platinum (NHM) was down 2.71% to R32.67 while Sibanye Gold (SGL) lost 4.09% to R8.20.
Harmony Gold (HAR) was down 8.84% to 39.17 after reporting a 15% decline in gold production to 247‚529 ounces in the quarter to March‚ from the 291‚734oz produced in the December 2012 quarter.
Abil was down 14.25% to R24.86 while JD Group (JDG) fell 5.87% to R31.29 and Lewis (LEW) lost 4.24% to R56.86.
