U.S. Losses Trigger Sell-Off
March 28, 2011
The All Share index lost 180 points, or 2.6%, to 6628, while the Industrial index stumbled 226 points, or 2.8%, to 7788. The All Gold index fared better, easing 23 points to 1844. At one point, the All Share index was down 3.4% while the Industrial index was down 3.9%. Brokers attributed Tuesday's sharp losses to futures dealers who frantically arbitraged price differentials between physical stocks and futures contracts on equity indexes. Some shares recovered late in the day on news from the U.S. This included the issue of monthly inflation data for the U.S. showing only a 0.1% increase in the consumer price index for June and strong earnings performances by Merrill Lynch and commercial bank Citicorp. Traders saw demand late in the session for ``quality industrials'' that earlier had borne the brunt of selling from offshore investors and futures players. Local institutional investors sat on the sidelines during Tuesday's melee, preferring to nibble at some favorite stocks on the way down. However, most blue-chip stocks finished well down for the day. Market bellwether Anglo American Corp. dropped 4.75 rand to 256.25, while fellow heavyweight De Beers Consolidated Mines shed 5 rand to 141.00. South African Breweries fell 7.75 rand to 118.50, while Anglo American Coal Corp. dropped 9.00 rand to 311.00. Mining and investment house Anglovaal slipped 6.50 rand to close at 145.50.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
