South African bourse slips for second consecutive day

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) close weaker on Tuesday, while financial and bank stocks surged.

The South Africa's rand traded at R13.1 to the U.S. dollar, in response to higher commodity prices and disappointing economic data from the U.S. The currency is now at its strongest level since April 26 and breached the important technical level of R13.25 a dollar, which could lead to even further gains.

The R14.33-trillion index closed 0.05 percent down at 54,023.12 points, while the top 40 index dropped 0.02 percent to trade at 47,426.96 points.

The financial index was 0.37 percent higher, and the resources index was 0.24 percent higher.

Among other stocks on the JSE, FirstRand traded 0.74 percent to R50.15, and Barclays Africa was 1.6 percent higher at R145.47.

Vodacom gained 4.64 percent to R159.95, following an announcement that the mobile operator was set to acquire 35 percent stake in Kenyan group Safaricom in a R35 billion deal.

Gold and platinum shares were weaker, but the platinum price surged up.

Sibanye dropped 2.2 percent to R27.7 and Lonmin shed 4.36 percent to R17.13, following its interim results in which it reported a loss and warned of the dire consequences of any further impairments.

Naspers dropped 2.2 percent to R2,670. Endit