South Africa Market Watch | 17 July 2015: JSE All Share sheds 37 basis point, but financial up by 23 basis points

Johannesburg, South Africa (Capital Markets in Africa) —South African equity markets end the week on a bearish mood. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) All Share lost 0.24 percent or 125.40 points to settle at 52,723.72 points. The JSE Top 40 index also plummeted by 0.37 percent or 175.71 points to end at 47,052.58 points and the gold sector index decreased by 3.90 percent or 37.97 points at 936.10 points. Both Industrial sector and Industrial 25 indexes declined by 0.02 percent to end at 76,144.67 and 0.09 percent to close at 67,925.07 respectively. Likewise, the Resource sector index tumbled by 2.17 percent with a closing level of 37,971.07 points but the JSE Financial index slightly added 0.23 percent at 45,783.90 levels.

Looking at the market strength/breath, the market recorded 187 price gainers and 177 price losers as well as 53 that remained unchanged, hence market strength ended positive. On the top ten gainers list on Friday was Silverbridge Holdings, whose shares rose 18.62 percent to close at ZAR 1.72 after 40,800 shares were exchanged in 7 deals today. Also on the list was Aveng Group, whose shares climbed to ZAR 5.84 after 527 deals traded 1,197,798 shares, a boost in the share price of 7.55 percent. Likewise, Nvest financial holdings Limited rose by 51.04 percent to end at ZAR 3.64 and Sabvest Limited increased by 24.39 percent to trade at ZAR 28.00.

Anglogold Ashanti was among the biggest movers downwards, as shares slid 5.48 percent to end at ZAR 94.51 after investors bought and sold 1,044,102 shares in 3,368 deals. After 1,070 deals exchanged a total of 589,933 shares, Lewis Group fell by 4.70 percent to settle at ZAR 73.00. Among top losers were Brimstone Investment Corporation Limited fell by 8.23 percent at ZAR 14.50 after investors sold and bought 16,707 shares and Montauk Holdings Limited declined by 7.30 percent to trade at ZAR 11.30.

On the foreign exchange market, the South Africa rand was stronger by trading at ZAR 12.3493 to the US dollar, at ZAR 19.2390 to the British pound and ZAR 13.3939 to the euro.