The JSE was on track for its first day of losses this week on Wednesday, tracking global equities as optimism about the slowing down of Covid-19 begins to fade.
The global market rally, driven by hope that the spread of the coronavirus is starting to ease in some of the hot-spots across the world, was short-lived. The number of confirmed cases had risen to more than 1.43-million, with more than 300,000 of those recovered, with more than 82,000 deaths by Wednesday.
“Optimism is fizzling out as doubts grow about how and when exactly quarantine and lockdown restrictions will end,” said London Capital Group head of research Jasper Lawler. “It looks like pandemic curves will not flatten in time to reach April deadlines set by many governments to review lockdown measures.”
In Europe, the FTSE 100 was down 1.55%, France’s CAC 40 1.81% and Germany’s DAX 30 0.99%.
Earlier, the Shanghai Composite dropped 0.19% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 1.17%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 2.13%.
At 11.20am, the all share was down 1.91% to 46,590.53 points and the top 40 2.02%. Platinum miners lost 6.20% and resources 2.64%.
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