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S. African stocks close weaker ahead of festive holidays

Xinhua, December 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) had given up some of Tuesday's gains by close on Wednesday led by losses in resources and financial shares.

The all-share index was 0.36 percent lower at 50,163.92 and only the gold mining, banks and general retailers indices were positive. The blue-chip top 40 was down about 0.44 percent. Industrial index was down 0.2 percent, while banks index was up 0.43 percent.

The South African rand was trading at R13.95 to the U.S. dollar, R17.24 to the British pound and R14.56 to the euro at close of session.

This provided a boost for the rand, which dropped below R14 to the U.S. dollar, and the spot gold price, which added 0.07 percent to 1,132.85 U.S. dollars an ounce.

DRD Gold shares climbed 7.77 percent to R6.8.

Investec's global mining team said that although Indian gold imports were booming, as they usually did in the fourth quarter, they were not enough to offset selling by investment funds in response to higher U.S. interest rates.

The South African listed property index led the market down with a 0.9 percent drop. Rebosis fell 2.42 percent to R11.3 while Rediefine was up 0.85 percent to R10.63. Endit