THE Cypriot bank bail-out agreement reached early on Monday morning lifted global shares after a recovery in general risk appetite rekindled enthusiasm in stock trading.
Safe-haven assets such as gold counters, however, fell after the immediate danger of a financial meltdown in the island country was averted but concern about economic slowdown in the eurozone persisted.
On the local front, the JSE pared earlier gains later in the day after the local bourse was dragged down by the gold and resources indices, while banks and general retailers provided upside after recent losses.
At 5pm, the JSE all share index closed 0.14% lower at 40,008.70 points and the top 40 index was 0.22% lower.
Gold stocks slumped 2.37%, while banks and general retailers improved 1.02% and 0.94% respectively.
"A lot of fear was built into the local market last week but this has subsided and investors have disinvested from safe-haven assets such as gold counters," said Jan Botha, portfolio manager at Sasfin Securities in Pretoria.
"Our resources dipped due to concerns that there is a lack of demand from the end-user, such as the Chinese, of our commodities," he said.
At 4.54pm local time, the UK’s FTSE 100 had added 0.10% and the Paris CAC 40 index had given back 0.25%. At the same time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.20% softer.
Among JSE movers, bellwether Anglo American dipped 1.92% to R242.21 and rival BHP Billiton gave back 1.86% to R271.35.
On the bullion side, Gold Fields dropped 3.46% to R71.93 and Harmony gave back 3.63% to R58.39.
Retailer Mr Price added 2.38% to R120.70 and Shoprite garnered 1.27% to R179.50, while Steinhoff retreated 3% to R24.25.
Absa added 2.29% t R155.99 and Standard Bank gained 1.04% to R118.06.
Investment company Vunani shot up 13.33% to R1.70 despite reporting a diluted headline loss per share of 11.2c for the year ended December from a loss of 28c a year ago.
Exxaro gained 1.14% to R161.94 after it was reported that striking miners at five collieries had returned to work, with full production likely to resume on Wednesday, a trade union said.
