Stocks shed more than 275 points on Wednesday amid risk aversion and market volatility, driven lower by commodities and financials.

It follows a day of profit taking yesterday, which saw the JSE lose an additional 117 points.

At 5pm the JSE all share index was down 1.11 percent, with resources losing 0.96 percent and platinum miners giving up 2.58 percent, but gold miners were up sharply by 4.91 percent.

Banks lost 1.85 percent, financials declined 1.82 percent and industrials weakened 0.90 percent.

The rand was bid at 7.84 to the dollar, from 7.89 when the JSE closed on Tuesday. Gold was quoted at $973 a troy ounce from $956.32/oz at the JSE's last close, and platinum was at $1220.50/oz, from $1224.50/oz at its previous close.

A local trader said of the day: "Risk aversion is back. It is clear there are some concerns over recent positive moves on the JSE. This concern is also fuelled by volatility in markets abroad.

"Commodities drove us lower today, as did financials, following the trend from overseas."

Dow Jones Newswires reported that US stocks drifted between slight gains and losses on Wednesday morning as a closely watched precursor to the monthly jobs data and a separate report on factory orders both came in below expectations, though two of Tuesday's leading laggards — energy and financial stocks — bounced back.

Recently, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 12 points at 9303.

Setting off declines in premarket, a report from Automatic Data Processing and Macroeconomic Advisors said the US private sector shed 298 000 jobs in August, a faster rate of job losses than the 213 000 economists were expecting. The report is a closely watched precursor to the monthly US employment report due out on Friday.

More recently, the Commerce Department said demand for US factory goods climbed a fourth straight month during July, giving another indication the recession in the manufacturing sector might have ended. However, the 1.3 percent gain fell short of forecasts on Wall Street, which had expected a 2.3 percent increase.

Wednesday's early move comes on the heels of a vast stock market decline on Tuesday. Banking stocks notably led the market's downturn on renewed balance sheet concerns and fears that the broad rally in the sector may have been overdone. The Dow, which stretched its losing run to three in the worst single-day's performance since 17 August dropped 185 points.

On the JSE, resources giant Anglo American plc was down 2.69 percent to 241 rand and BHP Billiton declined 1.26 percent to 197.49 rand.

Petrochemicals group Sasol fell 1.39 percent to 287.99 rand.

Paper group Sappi gave up 3.92 percent to 28.15 rand.

Highveld Steel weakened 5.82 percent to 74.75 rand and ArcelorMittal was down 5.08 percent to 107.50 rand.

Gold miner AngloGold Ashanti added 4.10 percent to 295.01 rand while Gold Fields gained 5.70 percent to 99.06 rand and Harmony advanced 6.22 percent to 76.05 rand.

Platinum miner Anglo Platinum fell 5.31 percent to 660 rand, Impala Platinum eased 1.60 rand to 178.50 rand and Lonmin gave up 3.35 percent to 173 rand.

Northam Platinum shed 4.04 percent to 38 rand, with Aquarius sliding 4.11 percent to 32.22 rand.

In diversified miners, African Rainbow shed 3.73 percent to 154.99 rand, and Exxaro ended down 4.55 percent to 86.38 rand.

Among industrials on the JSE, brewer SABMiller picked up 1.37 rand to 179.88 rand and British American Tobacco advanced 1.41 percent to 243.90 rand, but Barloworld gave up 3.79 percent to 45.70 rand.

Bidvest declined 1.05 percent to 113 rand and Tiger Brands waned 1.51 rand to 152 rand.

Banker Standard Bank dropped 1.78 percent to 96.99 rand, Nedbank fell 1.02 rand to 112.98 rand and Absa declined 3.52 percent to 121.86 rand.

Investec plc weakened 2.84 percent to 53.45 rand with Santam down 1.68 percent to 88 rand.

Diversified financial services group Metropolitan Holdings was 2.22 percent weaker at 13.20 rand. The group earlier reported a 12 percent decrease in diluted core headline earnings per share from 70.03 cents to 61.54 cents for the six months ended June.

The interim dividend was maintained at 40 cents per share.

Sugar group Tongaat Hulett was down 2.17 percent to 90.49 rand.

Media group Naspers shed 2.79 percent to 244 rand.

Retailer Woolies was off 3.77 percent to 15.30 rand, Truworths declined 1.93 percent to 39.22 rand, and Foschini gave up 1.64 percent to 60 rand.

JD Group eased 4.33 percent to 39.99 rand, with Lewis down 2.30 percent to 51 rand.

Construction group Aveng gave up 4.98 percent to 38 rand and Murray & Roberts lost 3.27 percent to 51.75 rand. Group Five slid 4.08 percent to 38.80 rand.

Health insurance group Discovery Holdings was off 1.04 percent to 27.60 rand. It was announced earlier that the group had lifted diluted headline earnings per share by 31 percent from 170.5 cents to 224.1 cents for the year ended June.

Operating profit for the year was up 32 percent to R1.7-billion.

The group declared a final dividend of 33 cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 58.5 cents, which represents a 31 percent increase on last year's distribution.

Telecommunications group MTN Group gained 89 cents to 127.95 rand while Telkom was off 1.71 percent to 43.05 rand.

Agri services business Afgri gave up 5.36 percent to 5.30 rand. Earlier it reported diluted headline earnings per share of 68.9 cents for the year ended June 2009 from 68.5 cents a year earlier. Earnings per share from continuing operations rose to 93.8 cents from 89.2 cents.

Group profit was up 18 percent to R354-million, while operating profit grew to R1.24-billion from R1.03-billion.

A total dividend of 36.40 cents was declared. Net cash improved by 128 percent to R481-million.

I-Net Bridge