The JSE fell sharply on Wednesday, putting it on track for its worst quarterly decline in eight years.
The all share was down 2.13% to 54,854.60 points at midday, its weakest level since July 2017, and as a result well into correction territory — technically defined as a drop of 10% or more from a recent high. All the underlying indices dropped fairly sharply on the day, save for gold stocks.
The local share market was caught up in a renewed sell-off on global markets, which have been erratic and inconsistent since the start of 2018.
"Overall 2018 hasn’t been great for markets, with volatility kicking in and trade-war talk having its effect on performance," Unum Capital analyst Michael Porter said.
"We are still bullish [on] local markets but I don’t expect the same growth we have seen [over] the past couple of years, with volatility the name of the game at the moment." The sell-off in big US technology companies on Tuesday night spread to Asia, Europe and the UK, where a number of larger South African companies ply their trade.
Media and internet group Naspers, which has increasingly become a proxy for the local market, was down 4.15% to R3,000, for the first time since mid-February.
The rout in tech stocks gained traction as Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg indicated that he was planning to testify before the US Congress, following an enormous user data breach and the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Europe’s leading stock indices were weaker at midday, following their Asian counterparts, where Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 2.5%.
Anglo American was down 2.44% to R270.74 and Kumba Iron Ore 4.34% to R273.59.
Standard Bank slid 2.91% to R213.59, Barclays Africa 2.23% to R189.05 and Capitec 3.32% to R870.14.
Sanlam slumped 6.52% to R85.64 and Discovery 4.23% to R169.52. The former announced earlier that it had placed 65.5-million new shares at R87 each, a 5.3% discount to Tuesday’s R91.89 closing price.
Industrial group Bidvest shed 2.34% to R221.08 and Barloworld 3.49% to R162.88.
Woolworths dropped 2.07% to R59.71, Shoprite 1.96% to R245.81 and Truworths 3.48% to R106.86.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.