Money SA economy
The JSE remained in the red at midday, with the main 'talk of the town' being resources giant BHP Billiton's results.
Although the global mining giant reported a doubling of earnings per share to 228.6 US cents and a 116.5% surge in profit to $12.7 billion, the results were slightly below the market consensus forecast.
By 12.11pm local time the JSE all share index had fallen 0.79%, with resources 1.05% weaker, platinum miners declining 1.05% and gold miners down 1.08%. Banks shed 1.13%, financials edged down 0.71% and industrials lost 0.58%. Gold was quoted at $1 236.17/oz from $1 232.47/oz at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was at $1,521.50/oz from $1,516.50/oz before.
A local trader said the big news on Wednesday was the BHP Billiton story. However, he did not see any further weakness for the price unless it increases its bid for PotashCorp. It was last quoted down R1.80 at R203.64.
Other factors weighing on the market were concerns about the pace of global economic recovery following US existing home sales data on Tuesday.
Overnight, Wall Street dropped as a result of more soft US economic data and investors fleeing risky assets after a spate of negative headlines, leading to selling in equities and the euro.
Asian stock markets were mostly lower on Wednesday as worries over the pace of the global economic recovery continued to hurt sentiment, while Tokyo stocks remained under pressure from a still-strong yen, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
In London, the FTSE100 was last 0.3% weaker.
On the JSE, Anglo American shed R3.17 or 1.19% to R262.33 and Sasol lost R3.14 or 1.1% to R281.49.
