JSE extends losses on global markets

The JSE extended losses in early afternoon trade on Wednesday‚ tracking weaker sentiment on global markets.

The all share index was off 1.27% to 52‚227.40 points‚ with the blue-chip top 40 giving up 1.31%.

"The global back is clearly very weak. There are genuine concerns about the long-term effects of dollar strength on the US companies‚" Investec Asset Management’s head of dealing for emerging markets‚ Ryan Wibberley‚ said.

Weaker than expected results from US tech giants‚ including Apple‚ have upset global market sentiment.

Stock losses were spread across most sectors on the JSE‚ with the resources sector taking a particularly big knock as diversified miners joined the recent rout in gold and platinum counters.

Europe’s major markets were similarly lower at midday‚ with Britain’s top share index losing 1.15%‚ while US stock futures pointed to a weaker session on Wall Street in the afternoon.

Among individual shares‚ Anglo American was down 2.54% at R160.96 and rival BHP Billiton fell 3.23% to R232.43.

Heavily weighted media and internet group Naspers dropped 2.85% to 1‚877.29 while diversified industrial group Bidvest dropped 2.08% to R308.45.

Barclays Africa was off 2.02% to R187.67 while Woolworths gave up 2.17% to R97.10.

Consumer goods group AVI was off 2.13% to R83.48.

- BDlive