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South African stocks close lower

Xinhua, September 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) traded lower again on Wednesday, with the local market failing to take advantage of a run in emerging markets.

Although the rand traded almost 2.5 percent stronger at R14.04 to the dollar, major indices on the JSE were mostly lower as a strong local unit is negative for the big rand hedge shares, which represent most of the bourse's market capitalization.

The South Africa rand was trading at R18.74 to the British pound and R15.75 to the euro at close of trading session.

The all share index, which has been trapped in a fairly narrow band for some time, was down 0.42 percent to 53,456.43 points at close on Wednesday, with the top 40 having shed 0.49 percent to 46,777.09 points.

The big loser was the industrial index, which gave up 0.61 percent, while the financial index was 0.25 percent lower. Resources were barely in the black and the gold mining index lost 1.40 percent.

Banks dropped 0.23 percent, ending a three-day winning run. The positive sentiment in the banking sector was partly due to a strong recovery in the rand that allayed concern about further hikes in local interest rates in the short term.

Among individual shares Nedbank fell 2.89 percent to R212.67, Barclays Africa retreated 2.80 percent to R148.50 amid reports that a bid for a stake in the group by previous CEO Bob Diamond's Atlas Mara group had been put on hold.

Among the rand hedges, Richemont lost 1.13 percent to R85.18. British American Tobacco was climbed 0.40 percent at R905.31. BHP Billiton lost 0.94 percent to R186.44.

Retailers were weaker, with Truworths losing 1.88 percent to R75.31 and Mr Price lost 2.14 percent to R162.94. Endit