South Africa Market Watch | 8 July 2015: South African equities edges up, JSE All Share adds 48bps, gold miners 138bps down

Johannesburg, South Africa (Capital Markets in Africa) —South African equity markets returned to green today after two days in the south territory. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) All Share ended 0.48 percent higher on Wednesday to land at 50,235.76 points. The JSE Top 40 index also grew by 0.68 percent or 301.82 points to settle at 44,679.82 points and JSE Financial sector index advanced by 1.46 percent or 621.64 points at 43,166 points. Both Industrial sector index and industrial 25 index surged by 0.20 percent (to end at 72,497.18) and 0.22 percent (to settle at 64,483.39) respectively. Likewise, the resource sector index gained 0.18 percent with a closing level of 36,887.60 but the JSE Gold Miners index shed off 1.38 percent at 1,006.48 levels.
Looking at the market strength/breath, the market recorded 167 price leaders and 185 price losers as well as 68 remained flat, hence market strength ended negative. Amongst the top ten movers upwards on Wednesday was Stellar Capital Partners, whose shares rose 7.50 percent to ZAR 2.15 after investors bought and sold 843,472 shares in 122 deals. Torre Industries  climbed 4.68% after 130 deals saw the exchange of 1,623,544 shares, which sent the share price up to ZAR 4.92. Other top gainers were GOLIATH Gold  Limited (added 74.00 percent at ZAR 1.74 in 8,8854 shares), ERIN Machine Tools (gained 46.74 percent with closing price of ZAR 67.50 after investor sold 2,510 shares) and MONTAUK Holdings surged by 12.38 percent to close at ZAR 11.80 in 28,494 securities.

Exxaro Resources (EXX) was amongst the top losers, with a loss of 5.50 percent following the trade of 836,838 shares in 2,004 deals, leaving the share price down at ZAR 73.48. After 9,074 deals totalling 1,614,825 shares, Kumba Iron Ore slumped by 5.35 percent to sell at ZAR 115.00. African Equity Empowerment Investments plunged by 18.56 percent to settle at ZAR 2.15 after 38,091 stocks traded. Likewise, ADRENNA PROPERTY GROUP and DIAMOND CORP Plc Limited tumbled by 13.19 percent to settle at ZAR 1.25 and 9.01 percent with closing price of ZAR 2.12 respectively.

On the foreign exchange market, the South Africa rand was weaker, trading at ZAR 12.5078 to the US dollar and ZAR 13.8406 to the Euro, by appreciating 0.42 percent and 1.03 percent against the US dollar and the Euro respectively. But, the rand traded at ZAR 19.1822 to the British pound, ZAR 8.4147 to the New Zealand dollar, by gaining 0.20 percent and 1.65 percent in that order. The Rand appreciated by 0.37 percent against Aussie dollar to close at ZAR 9.3111.