South African stocks close lower Wednesday

The Johannesburg stock Exchange (JSE) closed lower on Wednesday, pulled down by gold miners and industrial shares.

The all share index was down 0.58 percent to 52,501.97 points. The blue chip top 40 dropped 0.63 percent to 45,985.07 points.

The financial index was down 0.83 percent and resources index climbed 0.32 percent. Gold miners saw 1.38 percent losses on the JSE, while gold had risen 0.34 percent to 1322.67 U.S. dollars an ounce.

The South Africa rand was trading weaker at R14.29 to the U.S. dollar, R18.82 to the British pound, and R16.09 to the euro at close of session.g

Erstwhile market darlings Mr Price and Richemont took a slump, with the latter affected by the trading update in which it said first-half operating profit was expected to drop 0.45 percent.

Among some individual stocks, Richemont was 4.47 percent lower to R84.69, with Mr Price dropping 5.64 percent to R150.32 and Woolworths dropping 4.20 percent to R80.00.

For the banking sector, Standard bank tumbled 3.31 percent to R136.42, while FirstRand lost 0.61 percent to R47.25.

Source : XINHUA