Johannesburg - The JSE was in the red on Monday morning‚ with gold miners leading the upside while platinum counters continued to shed value after a global commodities sell-off on Friday.
Concern about potential labour unrest at platinum producer Anglo Platinum (Amplats) after its restructuring plan drove the platinum index to a four-year low on Friday.
At 9:50 the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was 0.19% weaker at 40 155.26 points‚ with the gold index adding 0.95% and the platinum index falling 1.38%.
Spot gold was down 0.64% at $1‚432.62/oz while platinum was 0.13% softer at $1 488.00$/oz.
One of the most important issues on the local risk check list was labour dynamics‚ Rand Merchant Bank said in a morning note.
“While Amplats scaled down its restructuring plans‚ as announced on Friday‚ the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has threatened strike action. After months of consultation with the government‚ Amplats announced that it will shed 6‚000 jobs instead of 14 000 and that it will keep the Khuseleka 1 mine open‚” RMB said.
Amplats (AMS) shed 3.33% on Monday morning to R319.01 on labour woes and Impala Platinum (IMP) fell 2.15% to R107.64.
Lonmin (LON)‚ the world's third-largest platinum producer‚ was the biggest gainer in the platinum sector on Monday morning after reporting a solid performance in the six months to end-March‚ with platinum sales of 326‚142 ounces‚ up 2.4% on the prior period. The counter gained 6.28% to R41.23.
Gold miner AngloGold Ashanti (ANG) was 1.5% firmer at R170.74 after it reported a rise in production to 899 000oz for the quarter ended March this year from 859 000oz the previous quarter.
The group on Monday posted a sixfold improvement in adjusted headline earnings from the previous quarter to $113m as the costs were better than guidance and the company made steady progress recovering from the strike action in South Africa in the last quarter of last year‚ it said.
Harmony (HAR) was the biggest gainer among gold stocks‚ adding 2.63% to R41.31.
Stefanutti Stocks Holdings (SSK) slumped 5.66% to R8.50 after it said on Monday that the proposed penalty against the group‚ as notified by the Competition Commission‚ is R323m.
Poultry producer Astral Foods (ARL) dipped 3.52% to R90.21 after reporting on Monday an 82% plunge in diluted headline earnings per share to 94c in the six months to end-March as operating profit slumped by 80% despite a 5% rise in revenue to R4.234bn.