Nervous investors pull bourse under the spell of global credit jitters
September 25, 2007
By Reuters and Bloomberg
Johannesburg - Advancing mining shares, led by BHP Billiton and Exxaro Resources, failed to save earlier gains for the market on Friday as investors fretted about global economic prospects.
Market players were particularly wary of holding long dollar positions ahead of a long weekend, traders said. The JSE was closed yesterday for the Heritage Day public holiday.
The Top40 index closed 0.42 percent down at 27 049.61 points, after earlier flirting with 29 978.61, while the all share index ended 0.41 percent lower at 29 709.35 points.
Some mining and banking shares changed course after rocketing on the back of a surprise interest rate cut in the US on Tuesday.
"I just think there's a little bit of a lack of conviction in terms of where people feel the market is going," said Jan Meintjes, a fund manager at Gryphon Asset Management.
"We had quite a burst there after the cut in interest rates in the US, so we saw a little bit of profit taking … that's continued," said Meintjes.
BHP Billiton gained 1.23 percent to R233 while Exxaro Resources added 3.01 percent to R85.50.
Gold Fields and Harmony Gold lost 1.35 percent and 2.32 percent to R127 and R84, respectively.
Anglo American suffered but climbed back from a session low of R445.25 to close 0.15 percent down at R449.10.
The banks sector index shed 1.57 percent.
Absa slipped 2.58 percent to R122.25 and FirstRand lost 1.8 percent to R22.51.
Pinnacle Technology fell from a high of R4.83 to R4.69, after the firm reported an annual profit of R75.3 million, from a loss of R6.27 million a year ago.
RBA Holdings reached a high of R1.50, before closing at R1.40 on its second day of trading on the AltX.
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