South African stocks close lower on global jitters

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) closed in red on Wednesday in line with global markets.

The all-share index dropped 1.21 percent to 50,384.87 points at close of session, its weakest intraday low since late June, pressured by mining stocks in particular.

Some opinion polls in the U.S. indicate that Republican candidate Donald Trump has taken the lead over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, amid concerns that the fallout from leaked e-mails from Clinton's personal server would further damage her campaign.

The dollar was also weak against a host of other currencies, which provided decent support to some commodity prices, including copper that rallied to its best level since late July at about 4,920 U.S. dollars a tonne.

Anglo American dropped 2.23 percent to R186.24, BHP Billiton lost 3.61 percent to R199.17 and Glencore dropped 2.39 percent to R40.48. Impala Platinum lost 3.89 percent to R56.9.

British American Tobacco was 2.43 percent off at R764 and luxury goods maker Richemont shed 1.45 percent to R86.61.

FirstRand was up 1.35 percent at R49.69 as Capitec lost 1.51 percent to R672.94.

Mr Price slipped 2.11 percent to R147.80 and Naspers shed 2.11 percent to R2,227. Endit