Shares in Barloworld fall

Shares in Barloworld‚ the earth-moving‚ construction and mining equipment provider‚ fell for a third day on Friday‚ losing as much as 4% after a ratings downgrade by Credit Suisse.

At 12:35 local time‚ the company’s shares had recovered from their earlier lows‚ to trade 3.3% down at R79.28; it was amongst the worst performing stocks on the JSE all share index on Friday.

On Thursday‚ Credit Suisse downgraded Barloworld to “neutral” from “outperform.”

Miners had been cutting back on capital expenditure‚ or delaying their plans thereon as commodity prices came under pressure‚ which has had an impact on providers of the equipment‚ Doug Blatch‚ head of equity trading at Investec Asset Management said.

Under pressure from a low metal price and high costs‚ platinum miners such as Aquarius Platinum (AQP)‚ have in recent months announced plans to scale back expansion.

At the same time‚ off small volumes‚ Bell Equipment’s (BEL) stock plunged 14.3% during the day on Friday to R18.65‚ making it the worst performer on the all share.