JSE faces sharp losses as other markets fall on Friday

The JSE faces much weaker Asian markets on Friday morning, amid a sharp sell-off on US markets overnight, particularly for tech stocks.

The sell-off was overdue, and what was interesting to note it did not fully extend to other asset classes, such as dollars and gold, said Oanda senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley in a note.

“The price action in the currency markets, along with the relative resilience of Asian equities this morning, strongly suggests that last night’s fall on Wall Street was a Wall Street-centric event, and not a structural turn in sentiment,” he said.

In morning trade the Hang Seng was down 1.83% and the Hang Seng 1.38%.

Tencent, which influences the direction of the JSE via Naspers, had fallen 3.09%.

Gold was up 0.26% to $1,935.31/oz while platinum had risen 0.85% to $895.45. Brent crude was 0.8% lower at $43.64 a barrel.

The rand was 0.12% firmer at R16.72/$.

Locally, the corporate and economic calendar is somewhat light, with load-shedding continuing, though it has moved to stage 3.

International focus is on US nonfarm payroll numbers later.

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