The Johannesburg Security Exchange lost 118 points by midday with resources leading the pack downhill, although some support was seen coming for bank and retail counters.

By 12:07, the all share index was down 0.55 percent, with banks the only shining light, up marginally by 0.07 percent. Financials were down 0.20 percent while resources lost 0.92 percent. In fact, resources were the worst hit, falling 0.92 percent, with gold down 2.42 percent and platinum 1.93 percent softer. Industrials were off by 0.30 percent, but retail stocks seemed to be finding some support.

"We expected the market to be slightly weaker today after the Dow only closed up 7 points, but on aggregate over two days we're actually still up thanks to Anglo," said Martin Lentsoane, senior trader from Cortex Securities.

"We washed away 200 points of our gains this morning after running nicely on Anglo yesterday, but we're still up 200 points over the two days, so it's still fairly good," he added.

Source: Xinhua