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S.African bourse closes lower with losses in gold mining shares

Xinhua, August 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) closed lower as the stocks were moving in and out of positive territory on Wednesday.

A substantially weaker rand over the past 24 hours has been favourable for some industrial companies, but it has weighed on banks and retailers.

The South African rand was trading at R13.44 to the U.S. dollar, R15.15 to the euro and R17.43 to the British pound.

The all share index ended 0.17 percent lower at 52,309.70 points on Wednesday, with losses led by a 1.81 percent drop in gold mining shares.

Gold had risen 0.13 percent to 1346.94 dollars an ounce, silver was down 0.95 percent at 19.58 dollars an ounce, and platinum was fractionally lower at 1,109.42 dollars an ounce.

Among individual shares, BHP Billiton (BIL) was up 1.62 percent to R182.50, but Sasol slid 1.35 percent to R370, 05. Aveng (AEG) gained 5.91 percent to R6.09.

Global brewing giant SABMiller (SAB) was up 1.31 percent to R765.00 and Naspers rose 4.45 percent to R2, 230.00.

Financial services group Standard bank (SBK) was off 2.66 percent to R142, 62 and Sanlam (SLM) lost 3.14 percent to R66.84.

Harmony Gold Mining Company (HAR) was amongst the biggest movers downwards, at 6.39 percent to R53.94, while PPC Limited (PPC) fell 4.65 percent to R9.44 by close of session.

Harmony Gold reintroduced a dividend for the first time since 2012 following the positive turnaround in its full-year results. Endit