South Africa Market Watch | 19 Aug 2015: JSE dips back into red, with losses across the main sector indices

 Johannesburg, South Africa (Capital Markets in Africa) — Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) dipped back into the red, with losses across the main sector indices except JSE Gold index. JSE All Share fell by -836.13 or -1.64 percent to close at 50140.90 points and the JSE Top 40 index was down by -780.88 points or -1.72 percent to end at 44,686.47 points.

From the sector perspectives, financial sector index lost -1.58 percent or -709.14 points at 44,308.52 points. Both Industrial sector index and industrial 25 index went down by -1.56 percent to close at 72,704.99 points and -1.57 percent to settle at 64823.23 points respectively. However, the JSE Gold index index was up by 5.20 percent or 43.83 points to close at 886.36 points but the JSE Resource sector index fell by -2.12 percent with a closing level of 34412.51 points.

Looking at the market strength/breath (measured as ratio of gainers to losers), the market recorded 92 price gainers, 254 price losers and 51 remained unchanged, hence market strength/breathe ended positive. Amongst the top gainers was NUWORLD climbed by 20.42 percent to end at ZAR 2990 after investors exchanged 10726 shares. AngloGold Ashanti rose by 7.39 percent after trading 2,678,012 shares, boosting the share price to ZAR 93.30. Tradehold  also added 6.70 percent to sell at ZAR 21.50 after investors traded 516694 shares. Transpaco Ltd rose by 6.67 percent to ZAR 20.00 after exchanging a total of 3290 shares. Aquarius surged by 6.43 percent to end at ZAR 1.49.

On the losers’ league table, was Lonmin Plc whose shares fell to ZAR 5.47 after 4,308,276 shares were bought and sold, resulting in a loss in share price of -19.56 percent. Metair lost -12.87 percent as shares slid to end at ZAR -12.87, after 695,992 shares were traded. Deneb Investments Ltd tumbled by -8.68 percent to conclude at ZAR 2.00 a share after investors bought and sold 165,000 shares. Massmart Holdings Ltd plunged by -8.49 percent after investors traded 1,371,947 shares, sending the share price sliding to ZAR 11,700. Bee-Sasol Limited sagged by 3.27 percent to end at ZAR 325.00 after exchanging 158 shares.

On the forex markets front, the South rand was weaker against US dollar at ZAR 12.86 by depreciating by -0.28  percent.