Johannesburg, Jan 13 (I-Net Bridge) - The JSE dropped into negative territory at the close of trade on Friday on the back of some profit-taking activity.
A local trader said "Some stocks have been a little over stretched as of late and so we're seeing some profit taking coming through."
He said that the bond auctions had been mildly positive and although the US had seen some fairly mixed data, the general sentiment about the US market was more positive.
Right towards the close, news filtered in of an S&P outlook change over several countries in Europe.
The rand also weakened sharply against the US dollar in late trade on Friday after Fitch Ratings announced that it was amending SA's outlook to 'negative' from 'stable'.
At 17:00 local time, the JSE all-share index had dipped 0.25%. Platinums fell 1.79%, resources moved down 0.30%, and gold shares edged down 0.11%.
Financials secured 0.16%, while industrials diminished 0.37% and financials wandered into flat territory (0.07%).
The rand fell sharply at 8.19 to the dollar from 8.03 at the JSE's close on Thursday. Gold traded at US$1,634.12 a troy ounce from US$1,662.11 at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was quoted at US$1,475.50/oz, from US$1,501.50/oz at the previous close.
Dow Jones Newswires reported that US stocks opened lower as fears of a credit downgrade of several eurozone countries added to disappointing results from JP Morgan Chase.
At the time of the JSE close the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 0.88%.
The declines came after Dow Jones Newswires reported that credit-rating firm Standard & Poor's could downgrade several eurozone countries as soon as today, citing European Union sources. S&P declined to comment.
The headlines sent the euro sharply lower. After gaining against the dollar, the common currency reversed course, shedding 1% to trade at US$1.2697. European stocks also gave up gains to trade in negative territory.
If US stocks finish lower, it would snap a week-long run of modest gains that has seen the Nasdaq Composite finish with gains for six consecutive days. Over that stretch, however, the Nasdaq added just 2.9%. On Thursday, the Dow rose 22 points, or 0.2%, to its highest close in nearly six months.
European markets turned lower after the S&P downgrade fears hit the headlines, clouding a day that was marked by optimism over lower Italian bond yields and strong eurozone trade data.
An Italian auction of Treasury bonds maturing in 2014 and 2018 met the high end of its target range. Elsewhere, data showed that the eurozone had a trade surplus of EUR6.9 billion (US$8.8 billion) in November compared with expectations for a slight deficit.
At 17:00 local time (15:00 GMT)
TRADE CLOSE PERC POINTS
ALL SHARE (J203) 32927.36 33008.52 -0.25 -81.71
INDUSTRIALS (J257) 34630.43 34759.92 -0.37 -129.49
FINANCIALS (J580) 22939.18 22902.41 0.16 36.77
RESOURCES (J210) 54110.61 54272.78 -0.30 -162.17
GOLD (J150) 2910.85 2914.03 -0.11 -3.18
PLATINUM (J153) 61.61 62.73 -1.79 -1.12
BANKS (J835) 42699.71 42667.87 0.07 31.84
Value traded 9.833 billion rand
Volume 174.328 million shares
Highest value traded shares:
MTN 129.00 rand dn 1.60 rand
Anglo 318.26 rand up 1.91 rand
BHP Billiton 255.20 rand dn 1.05 rand
Naspers 365.00 rand up 2.90 rand
Sasol 392.00 rand dn 3.00 rand
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