JSE drops on worries about economic recovery
The JSE was lower on Thursday morning as risk-off sentiment prevailed in global markets as investors fret about the economic recovery post-Covid-19.
US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell warned of an extended period of economic weakness on Wednesday as the world’s largest economy grapples with huge job losses due to the coronavirus.
“The global risk sell-off is picking up momentum on worries that the post-coronavirus economic recovery may be bumpy due to renewed contagion waves, and that the tension between the US and China could further dent the world economy from gaining a healthy pace of recovery,” Swissquote Bank analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya said.
Locally, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday night that more lockdown restrictions could be lifted by the end of May while the most affected areas could remain under level 4 of the lockdown.
At 10.45am, the JSE all share was down 1.41% to 49,445.55 points and the top 40 had lost 1.40%. Banks fell 2.01% and resources 1.40%.
Earlier, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.96%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 1.45% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 1.74%.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 lost 1.99%, France’s CAC 40 1.79% and Germany’s DAX 1.45%.
Source: businesslive.co.za