Steinhoff pulls down South African bourse to six-week low

JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Steinhoff weight down the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) to a six-week low on Wednesday, amid the resignation of the company's CEO Markus Jooste following fresh claims of accounting irregularity.

Steinhoff's share price took a massive knock as it slid a record 61.42 percent to R17.61.

The negative sentiment around Steinhoff also effected on Steinhoff Retail Africa and other associated companies, notably KAP Industrial.

"One of the reasons we owned Steinhoff was because of the management's proven ability in turning around acquisitions. That has now changed; management has turned out to be a liability," Vestact Asset Management analysts said in an e-mail note.

Naspers, which is the biggest stock on the local equity scene, tumbled 2.13 percent to R3445.07 but was still up 71 percent so far for 2017.

At close of session, the all share index was off 1.64 percent to 58,010.18 points, the blue-chip top 40 slipped 1.6 percent, dragged down by a larger weighting of Naspers and Steinhoff. Big resource stocks were under heavy pressure, continuing their recent downward spiral.

Shoprite shed 5.86 percent to R223.11. KAP Industrial Holdings was off 6.81 percent to R8.08.

Investment group PSG Group eased 6.95 percent to R276.4 and Brait 4.85 percent to R42.37.

Anglo American shed 1.21 percent to R245, Kumba Iron Ore 2.37 percent to R317.77 and Exxaro resources 9.03 percent to R140.

Financials closed in the red with its overall index down 0.51 as Sanlam dropping 1.68 percent to trade at R80.62 and FirstRand 1.35 percent to trade at R57.62. Standard Bank was up 0.72 percent to R181.79. Enditem