South Africa Equity Market | 20 Aug 2015: South Africa equity markets stay in red, gold miners and resources indices soar …

Johannesburg, South Africa (Capital Markets in Africa) —The South Africa equity markets continued in the red, with loses across the main sector indices except gold miner and resource index.  Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) All Share tumbled by 379.23 points or 0.76 percent to close at 49,761.67 points and the JSE Top 40 index sagged by 537.08 points or 1.20 percent to end at 44,149.38 points.

From the sector perspectives, financial sector index dropped by 1.31 percent or 578.43 points at 43,730.09 points. Both Industrial sector index and industrial 25 index declined by 1.49 percent to close at 71,621.10 points and 1.66 percent to settle at 63,747.00 points respectively. On the contrary, the resource index surged by 4.40 percent or 1,390.62 points to closed at 35,803.13 points and the Gold mining sector index gained 13.12 percent with a closing level of 1002.63 points.

Looking at the market strength/breath (measured as ratio of gainers to losers), the market recorded 58 price gainers, 220 price losers and 50 remained unchanged, hence market strength/breathe ended negative.  Amongst the top gainers was Lonmin Limited, whose shares climbed 22.67 percent to end at ZAR 6.71 after investors exchanged 11,242,394 shares in 5,482 deals. Anglo American Platinum Corporation Limited rose 17.30 percent after traded 1,107,069,600 shares, boosting the share price to ZAR 344.87. Impala Platinum Holdings Limited also added 16.85 percent to end at ZAR 51.52 after investors traded 8,677,967 shares. GFields rose by 15.02 percent to ZAR 43.65 after exchanged a total of 4,829,526 shares. RBA Holdings Limited surged by 14.13 percent to end at ZAR 1.05 after trading 127,161 shares.

Basil Read Holdings Limited whose shares fell to ZAR 3.60 after 10,592 shares were bought and sold, resulting in a fall in share price of 16.28 percent. Tharisa Plc lost 11.50 percent as shares slid to end at ZAR 5.00, after 80,000 shares were traded. Nu-world Holdings Limited tumbled by 9.70 percent to conclude at ZAR 27.00 a share after investors bought and sold 1,729 shares. Argent Industrial Limited also slid by 8.30 percent to conclude at ZAR 4.31 after 6,670 deals. After investors bought and sold 3,127,774 shares in 3,259 deals, Central Rand Gold Limited fell 7.14 percent to trade at ZAR 2.60.

On the forex markets front, the South rand was stronger against US dollar at ZAR 12.8764 by adding by 0.07 percent and gained 0.16 percent against British pound to trade at ZAR 20.1508. The rand fell by 0.52 percent against the Euro to close at ZAR 14.4086.