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JSE closed lower for third day amid commodity weakness

Xinhua, March 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) closed lower for a third second straight session Thursday amid strengthening dollar.

At 05:00 PM Local time (05:00 GMT), the all share index had lost 0.47 percent to 52,324 points. The blue-chip top 40 index was 0.57 percent weaker.

Market analysts say that the JSE was weakening because of the drop in commodity prices and possibly from some renewed concerns about the possible Fed rate increase in April.

"There had been strong rally in a number of risk assets since February, but momentum seemed to be waning and markets were starting to head lower," said analyst Chris Weston.

"Interestingly, the dollar has started to see buying emerge again, and this seems to be driving the moves," he added.

The rand had strengthened against the major currencies by 5 pm, with a U.S. dollar costing R15.52, a British pound costing R21.90, and a euro, R17.31.

Platinums slide 3.15 percent, gold miners edged up 1.15 percent and resources shed 0.15 percent. Financials lost 1.84 percent while Industrials were down 0.15 percent.

Among individual shares on the JSE, Glencore lost 0.61 percent to R32.76. Anglo American fell 4.04 percent to R107.20 and Kumba Iron Ore shed 6.62percent to R71.90.

Climbing 5.89 percent to R45.50 was Impala Platinum Holdings (IMP), after 3,212 deals traded a total of 4,047,275 shares Thursday. Enditem