Weighed by early falls on Wall Street, the JSE ended in the red on Tuesday but performed better than its global counterparts, with the weak rand limiting further losses.

By 5pm, the JSE all share index had lost 1.66 percent, with resources easing 0.90 percent. However, platinum miners collected 1.91 percent and gold miners gained 7.06 percent.

Banks gave up 3.78 percent, financials were down 3.43 percent, and industrials shed 1.66 percent.

The rand was last bid at 10.24 to the dollar, from 10.01 when the JSE closed on Monday and gold was quoted at $968.95/oz a troy ounce from $941.35 at the JSE's last close. Platinum was at $1086 from its previous close of $1062.50/oz and Brent crude was at $41.98 from a previous close of $43.28.

"We are down, but we did do much better than other global markets," a Johannesburg-based trader said.

"Gold stocks, however, are on fire. They have rallied on the back of the strong gold price and of course the weaker rand has supported these as well as resources."

"Also the S&P has moved below the key 800 level and that is what is bringing this selling into the market. It's not looking too fantastic out there at the moment," he added.

Dow Jones Newswires reports that continuing concern about the fragile health of the financial system put stocks under pressure around the world on Tuesday, pushing down market indexes in Europe and Asia and weighing on US stocks.

Fears about the health of banks also pulled markets lower in Europe after the credit-ratings agency Moody's Investors Service said that it may downgrade the ratings of lenders with exposure to Eastern Europe. Moody's said that faltering economic conditions in Eastern Europe will continue to hit the asset quality and liquidity positions of local subsidiaries of major Western banks, which could spill over to their corporate parents in Austria, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany and Sweden.

The DJIA was last down 3.27 percent.

Back in Johannesburg, resources giant Anglo American gave up 2.49 percent to 179.12 rand and BHP Billiton was down four percent to 170 rand.

Petrochemicals group Sasol shed 3.28 percent to 265 rand.

Paper group Sappi weakened 5.17 percent to 26.25 rand.

ArcelorMittal shed 3.86 percent to 76.14 rand, Kumba Iron Ore sank 3.56 percent to 161 rand and Highveld Steel lost 1.61 percent 58 rand.

Among gold miners, AngloGold Ashanti jumped 8.81 percent to 319.90 rand, Gold Fields was up 5.41 percent to 118.05 rand and Harmony was up 5.22 percent to 123 rand.

Platinum miner Anglo Platinum collected 4.18 percent to 424 rand and Impala Platinum was up 1.13 percent to 134.50 rand.

In diversified miners, African Rainbow weakened 8.55 percent to 117.50 rand, Exxaro was down 2.83 percent to 67 rand and Hulamin shed 2.31 percent to 10.99 rand.

Mvelaphanda Resources was up 2.67 percent to 23.10 rand.

It earlier advised that it expected its earnings per share to be between 2.15 rand and 2.35 rand for the six months to end December 2008. This compares with a basic loss of 1.14 rand a share reported for the year to end December 2007.

The company said in a statement to the JSE that earnings had largely been impacted by a significant change in the accounting treatment of Northam.

Among industrials, brewer SABMiller gave up 1.42 rand to 154.42 rand, Barloworld lost 3.41 percent to 35.74 rand, Remgro shed 2.27 percent to 73.30 rand, Bidvest weakened 2.86 percent to 91.51 rand and Imperial fell 3.64 percent to 51.55 rand.

Among banks, Standard Bank was down 2.52 percent to 67.75 rand, Nedbank lost 4.59 percent to 81.10 rand, Absa gave up 5.21 percent to 90 rand and FirstRand shed 4.45 percent to 13.30 rand.

Old Mutual lost 6.58 percent to 7.10 rand, Mutual & Federal was down 6.67 percent to 14 rand and Investec fell 10.56 percent to 32.20 rand.

African Bank was down 3.54 percent to 25.90 rand. The group earlier said that had issued a R550-million senior unsecured floating rate bond with a redemption date of 19 February 2012 and priced at a credit spread of 330bps above three-month JIBAR.

In line with its existing risk management strategy, African Bank has hedged this floating rate exposure via an interest rate swap, resulting in an effective 11.4 percent fixed rate.

Sugar group Illovo gave up 4.42 percent to 25.95 rand.

Media group Avusa weakened 5.66 percent to 15 rand.

Retailer Massmart shed 5.32 percent to 73 rand, Lewis was off 2.86 percent to 40.80 rand, Shoprite lost 2.16 percent to 49.90 rand and Mr Price shed 2.84 percent to 24.27 rand.

Construction group Aveng fell 4.49 percent to 25.50 rand, Group Five was down 5.14 percent to 27.50 rand and Murray & Roberts lost 7.34 percent to 36.50 rand.

Cement manufacturer Pretoria Portland Cement fell 1.26 percent to 30.61 rand.

Property fund Emira eased five cents to 10.65 rand. The group earlier announced a distribution per participatory interest for the six months ended December 2008 was at 48.79 cents, up 10.04 percent from 44.34 cents for the same period in 2007.

Headline earnings per participatory interest were at 6.13 cents, down from the 44.87 cents reported the previous year.

The group said revenue was at R531.9-million, up from the R460.6-million reported for the previous year.

Liberty International gave up 4.12 percent to 51 rand.

Among telecommunications groups, MTN Group gave up 1.56 percent to 91.55 rand and Telkom fell 2.93 percent to 110.95 rand.

Airline Comair was unchanged at 1.80 rand. The group earlier reported sharply lower diluted headline earnings per share of 7.9 cents for the six months ended December 2008 from 13.4 cents a year ago, as earnings were pressured by the record-high fuel prices in the first quarter.

No interim dividend was declared as it is company policy to consider one dividend annually.

Attributable earnings declined by 47 percent to R32-million and revenue declined to R1.607-billion from a previous R1.258-billion.

I-Net Bridge