South Africa Market Watch | 14 Aug 2015: Bear torments the JSE’s traders, with loses across the main sectors

Johannesburg, South Africa (Capital Markets in Africa) —Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) ended in the red zone, with loses across the main sector indices.  Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) All Share plunged by 554.26 or 1.08 percent to close at 50,821.18 points and the JSE Top 40 index sagged by 536.52 points or 1.17 percent to end at 45,341.19 points.

On the same trend, financial sector index fell by 0.98 percent or 446.22 points at 44,888.61 points. Both Industrial sector index and industrial 25 index declined by 1.20 percent to close at 73,487.05  points and 1.30 percent to settle at 65,517.77 points respectively. Likewise, the resource index down by 0.63 percent or 224.66 points to closed at 35,383.19 points and the Gold mining sector index sagged by 3.39 percent with a closing level of 801.68 points.

Looking at the market strength/breath (measured as ratio of gainers to losers), the market recorded 133 price gainers, 236 price losers and 49 remained unchanged, hence market strength/breathe ended negative.  Amongst the top gainers was Silverbridge Holdings Limited, whose shares climbed 18.44 percent to end at ZAR 1.67 after investors exchanged 140,000 shares. Hospitality Property Fund B rose 10.46 percent after traded 1,466,000 shares, boosting the share price to ZAR 2.60. Montauk Holdings Limited also added 9.79 percent to sell at ZAR 10.99 after investors traded 30,640 shares. Comair Limited rose by 9.55 percent to ZAR 3.90 after exchanged a total of 47,339 shares. City Lodge Hotels Limited surged by 6.83 percent to end at ZAR 148.50.

On the losers’ league table, was Rockwell Diamonds Incorporated whose shares fell to ZAR 1.01 after 75 shares were bought and sold, resulting in a loss in share price of 56.09 percent. Ascension Properties Limited lost 10.66 percent as shares slid to end at ZAR 5.45, after 4,583 shares were traded. Nvest Financial Holdings Ltd tumbled by 10.00 percent to conclude at ZAR 2.70 a share after investors bought and sold 40,000 shares. Arcelormittal SA Limited plunged by 9.42 percent after investors traded 572,011 shares, sending the share price sliding to ZAR 14.04. Sibanye Gold Limited sagged by 8.27 percent to end at ZAR 14.06 after exchanging 2,084,584 shares.

On the forex markets front, the South rand was weaker against US dollar at ZAR 12.7977 by depreciating by 0.41 percent and depreciated by 0.28 percent against British pound to trade at ZAR 19.9867. The rand appreciated by 0.32 percent against the Euro to close at ZAR 14.2204.