South Africa Market Watch | 27 July 2015: The bear continued to torment the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

Johannesburg, South Africa (Capital Markets in Africa) — The bear continued to torment the stocks listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Monday. Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) All Share decreased by 54.53 or 0.11 percent to close at 51,301.55 points. The JSE Top 40 index edged down by 0.20 percent or 89.51 points to end at 45,768.94 points.

The financial sector index marginally lost 0.02 percent or 38.99 points at 44,959.28 points. Both Industrial sector index and industrial 25 index declined by 0.49 percent to close at 74,565.82 points and 0.57 percent to settle at 66,501.35 points respectively. However, the resource sector index rose by 2.01 percent with a closing level of 35,239.33 points and the JSE Gold mining index surged by 6.75 percent or 54.71 points at 865.78 points.

Looking at the market strength/breath, the market recorded 163 price gainers and 190 price losers as well as 66 remained unchanged, hence market strength/breathe ended negative.

Amongst the top five price advancers was AngloGold Ashanti, whose shares rose 7.42 percent to sell at ZAR 84.00 after investors exchanged 2,641,063 shares in 4,454 deals. Climbing up by 8.88 percent to ZAR 13.00 was Harmony Gold Mining Company, after 2,004 deals traded a total of 5,203,951 shares today. Brimstone Investment Corporation gained 14.77 percent to close at ZAR 17.10 and Adrenna Property Group Limited advanced by 8.33 percent to trade at ZAR 1.3. Gold Field Limited South Africa, price concluded at ZAR 37.22 with an increase of 7.73 percent.

The top five price losers at end of today’s trading session, Group Five Limited emerged as the biggest loser after price lost 12.70 percent to end the day at ZAR 22.00. It was followed by Lonmin Plc, whose shares dipped 9.47 percent after investors bought and sold 1,950,522 shares in 2,006 deals, sending the share price down to ZAR 10.80. Stefanutti Stocks Holding Limited lost 8.62 percent to end at ZAR 5.30 and Cognition Holdings Limited plummeted by 7.00 percent to settle at ZAR 1.86. Likewise, Crookes Brothers Limited settled at ZAR 64.10 by losing 6.56 percent and Labat Africa (LAB) slid 6.50% to R1.15 after 39 deals saw the sale of 653,623 shares.

On the currency markets front, the South rand weaker against US dollar at ZAR 12.6071 by losing 0.25 percent and by 1.06 percent against Euro to trade at ZAR 13.9949. The rand also fell by 0.27 percent against the British pound to end at ZAR 19.5881.