JSE closes down ahead of Christmas break
Xinhua, December 24, 2016 Adjust font size:
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) closed in the red on a half-day of trade before a four-day Christmas break.
On the bourse, the all-share index was down 0.82 percent to 49,423 and the Top-40 index lost 0.94 percent to 42,875.
The rand strengthened against the U.S. dollar to R14.01 a U.S. dollar from R14.0348 at Thursday's close. It also strengthened to R14.6397 to the euro from R14.6604, and to R17.1813 to the pound, from a previous R17.2522.
The spot gold lifted 0.44 percent to 1,132.84 U.S. dollars an ounce and platinum edged down 0.31 percent to 901.54 U.S. dollars an ounce.
Although the overall trend on the JSE was negative, losses were generally small.
AngloGold Ashanti, which has also been depressed by directionless gold prices, fell 1.8 percent to R135.9. Anglo American was off 0.36 percent to R194.76.
Healthcare shares were all lower. Discovery gave up 0.43 percent to R112.5, Mediclinic International 0.51 percent to R129.57 and Aspen Pharmacare 0.63 percent to R271.8.
Banks were mixed. Nedbank added 2.32 percent to R232.21 and Barclays Africa 0.15 percent to R164.5 but Investec gave up 1.09 percent to R89.23 and Standard Bank lost 0.31 percent to R149.02. Endit