JSE closes lower as U.S. dollar continues to gain

JOHANNESBURG, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) closed weaker on Tuesday as the U.S. dollar continued to gain.

South Africa's rand lost more than 20c against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday afternoon as the greenback convincingly broke through 1.16 U.S. dollars to the euro.

At the same time, the dollar continued to gain ground against the rand, keeping the local currency on the back foot at R12.63 to the dollar from R12.46.

The local bourse was also awaiting movements on the Dow following Monday's Memorial Day public holiday.

Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that U.S. Federal Reserve officials will not have further hawkish stance from the Fed with St Louis Fed president James Bullard "saying it was difficult for the Fed to raise interest rates by a large margin when the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank were pursuing accommodative policies."

JSE all share was 1.62 percent lower at 55,935.75 points and the top 40 lost 1.84 percent. Industrials were down 2.43 percent, general retailers 2.13 percent, food and drug retailers 2.38 percent, financials 1.38 percent and banks 1.67 percent.

British American Tobacco lost 1.08 percent to R642.5. Old Mutual plc was down 1.96 percent to R40.45. The group said on Tuesday it was mooting a plan to dispose 9.6 percent of Quilter to institutional investors.

Steinhoff Africa Retail was 0.3 percent lower at R16.85. The company reported a 49.1 percent drop in interim headline earnings per share (HEPS) to end-March.

Telkom lost 0.7 percent to R51.34 and MTN 1.24 percent to R113.72. Naspers dropped 3.65 percent to R3,088.21. Mediclinic dropped 2.95 percent to R103.45. Enditem