Johannesburg - The JSE continued in negative territory at midday on Friday amid warnings by credit rating agencies over the state of the fiscal positions of some major countries. Commodities led the way down.
By 12:07 local time, the JSE all share index had fallen 1.12%, led by gold miners, down 1.75%. Resources lost 1.72%, while banks gave up 1.03%.
Platinum miners were off 0.83%, and industrials shed 0.81%. Financials were down 0.52%.
The rand was trading at 7.12 to the dollar, from 7.02 at the JSE's close on Thursday. Gold was quoted at US$1 316.14 a troy ounce from US$1 334.48/oz at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was at $1 783/oz from $1 810.50/oz before.
A local trader said that commodity prices were a lot weaker this morning despite a weaker dollar.
"This means that the normal correlation [between commodities and the dollar] has broken down," he noted.
Dow Jones Newswires reports that European stocks opened lower on Friday, continuing the weak tone seen in Asia as investors reacted with caution to warnings from credit rating agencies about the state of the fiscal positions of some major countries.
Ratings agency S&P on Thursday cut Japan's long-term sovereign debt to "AA minus" from "AA", saying it expected its massive fiscal deficits to stay high in the coming years.
And also on Thursday, Moody's Investors Service stated the US "AAA" rating outlook remained stable, but pressures were increasing the likelihood of a change in outlook over the next two years.
At 09:30 GMT, the Stoxx Europe 600 index was 0.4% lower at 281.86 London's FTSE 100 index was down 0.7% at 5 922.81, the CAC-40 index in Paris lost 0.3% at 4 048.96, while the DAX index in Frankfurt was largely flat at 7 157.14.
Concerns about sovereign debt across the globe have been ramping up after downgrades of fiscally troubled nations in the euro zone. The US is struggling with a bloated budget deficit as well; some market participants believe it could eventually be stripped of its coveted "AAA" rating if its deficit remains high.
Looking ahead, the key item on the agenda is fourth-quarter gross domestic product data from the US due out at 13:30 GMT. The only other release of significance is the University of Michigan confidence survey, due around 15:00 GMT.
Earlier on Friday, Asian stock markets ended mostly lower, with shares in Japan weighed down by S&P's downgrade of the country's sovereign-debt rating.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average ended off 1.1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.6%, South Korea's Kospi Composite was off 0.3%, but China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.1%.
