S. Africa's JSE closes to nine-week low

JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) closed weaker on Tuesday, affected by negative sentiment around Steinhoff, which was hit by an accounting scandal last week.

Markets were subdued as pundit closely monitor developments in the country ahead of the ANC's elective conference at the weekend. The elective conference is expected to give directions of economic, political and social situations in South Africa.

Naspers which has a big influence on the local bourse closed down 3.42 percent at R3,500.

South Africa's rand, however, remained relatively steady ahead of the ANC conference, where Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and ANC MP Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will battle it out to become the party's new leader.

The local market closed marginally down with the JSE's all share index in the red by 0.82 percent, to 57,523.62 points, while the top 40 managed to dropped 0.08 percent to 51,312.31 points.

Financials were the big losers, as they closed down by 0.61 percent, Industrials finished down by 1.21 percent, while resource stocks rallied by 0.12 percent.

Gold miners ended the day down 2.55 percent.

Steinhoff, however, recovered 25.78 percent, to R11.76, with its price now having doubled since hitting a low of R6 on Friday. But it is still way off the R50-odd it traded at just a week before.

Bidvest was off 2 percent to R193.73.

AngloGold Ashanti shed 1.94 percent to R123.58, Gold Fields 2.13 percent to R50.98, and Sibanye-Stillwater 5 percent to R16.15.

Exxaro was off 1.86 percent to R19.51.

Standard Bank lost 2.26 percent to R167.57 and Barclay Africa 0.3 percent to R150.95.

Anchor Group slid 9.31 percent to R3.7 and Alexander Forbes 6.25 percent to R6.

Life Healthcare dropped 1.08 percent to R25.58 and Netcare 0.94 percent to R22.11.

Steinhoff Africa Retail was down 5.61 percent to R15.82.

Remgro gave up 2.33 percent to R203.81 and PSG Group 3.42 percent to R242.3. Enditem