Picture: JSE
Picture: JSE

THE JSE came off the day’s best level in early afternoon trade on Wednesday, dragged down mainly by banks and retailers.

Just after midday the all share index was up 0.35% at 51,406.70 points, after earlier rising as much as 0.66%. The blue-chip top 40 had gained 0.41%.

Banks were the notable losers, with the index down 1.85%, as the rand weakened to a session low of R15.28 to the dollar after Standard & Poor’s cut SA’s growth projections for this year.

A weaker rand supports the case for further interest rate increases, which bodes ill for the already weak economy.

"There is little impetus to push the market to the topside," said head of trading at GT Private Broking, Nilan Morar, adding that investors were apprehensive about the domestic political environment.

The ratings agency now expects SA’s economy to grow 0.8% this year, down from an earlier forecast of 1.6%.

In terms of other sectors on the JSE, the price action was relatively quiet, save for the resources sector that rallied due to the weaker rand.

The picture on global equity markets was patchy, with Germany’s DAX flat while the UK’s FTSE 100 was up 0.50%. US stock futures pointed to a positive start on Wall Street in the afternoon.

Among individual shares, Sasol was up 1.96% to R416.19, with South32 picking up 6.78% to R16.39.

AngloGold Ashanti rose 4.28% to R211.80 and Gold Fields lifted 2.84% to R59.05.

Standard Bank was down 2.58% to R122.20, with Barclays Africa losing 2.61% to R137.57.