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Gold mining stocks weigh down on JSE

Xinhua, May 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) slumped on Thursday, weighed down by the mining stocks in particular.

The all share index was off 0.81 percent to 52,370.10 points by close of session to end its four-day winning run, while the blue-chip Top 40 down 0.69 percent.

The resource shares wilted from substantially weaker commodity prices, which were in turn driven by a strong dollar following the release of the minutes of the US Federal Reserve's April meeting late on Wednesday.

The resources index shaved off 3.66 percent, with gold dropping 0.50 percent to sell at 0.50 percent to sell at 1,250.63 U.S. dollars an ounce, and platinum losing 3.67 percent.

The rand had weakened against the major currencies by 5:00 pm local time, with a US dollar costing R15.90, a British pound costing R23.11 and a euro costing R17.78.

The minutes suggested that the US Fed could pull the trigger on rates in June which pushed the JSE in red.

Amongst the top ten movers up was Italtile, whose shares edged up 4.12 percent to sell at R12.65 after investors exchanged 173,198 shares in 57 deals. Rising 5.35 percent to R57.90 was Sirius Real Estate, after 2,689 deals traded a total of 2,764,986 shares on Thursday.

Ranking in the top ten losers was Impala Platinum Holdings, whose shares slumped 8.70 percent after investors bought and sold 5,905,181 shares in 4,376 deals, sending the share price down to R49.52. Sibanye Gold was down 8.08 percent to R47.79 after 3,437 deals saw the sale of 4,092,853 shares. Endit