South African bourse closes weaker as gold mining stocks fall

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) closed weaker on Monday, weighted down by gold mining stocks in particular that dropped 2.59 percent.

At the close of session the R15.08-trillion all-share index, which continues to trade in a fairly narrow range, was off 0.77 percent to 52397.97 points.

The top 40 index was 0.87 percent lower, while the Industrial shed off 059 percent. The financial and banking Indices were down 0.70 percent and 48 percent respectively.

A US dollar cost R13.26, a British pound cost R17.03 and a euro cost R14.84 at 5 p.m.

Among individual shares, British American Tobacco (BAT) was off 1.71 percent to R849.92 and Glencore (GLN) dropped 3.38 percent to R32.92. African Rainbow Minerals (ARI) was off 4.39 percent to R99.21.

AngloGold Ashanti, which is the best performer on the top 40 index so far in 2016, slipped 4.97 percent to R284.44, Gold Fields (GFI) was down 1.1 percent to R85.79 and Lonmin (LON) shed 3.19 percent to R41.23.

Financial services group Standard bank (SBK) was off 0.92 percent to R150.10 and Capitec Bank Holdings (CPI) gained 1.53 percent to R645.00.

Massmart (MSM) slid 4.25 percent to R146.50 because of its poor trading update. The retailer expects headline earnings per share in the six months to June to surged up to 20.7 percent.

Anglo American (AGL) was off 0.06 percent to R150.00, while Anglo Gold Ashanti (ANG) slipped 4.97 percent to R283.44.

On the top ten gainers list was Aveng (AEG), whose shares rose 4.32 percent to R5.79.

Source : XINHUA