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JSE lower‚ retailers weigh

Johannesburg - The JSE closed the Tuesday session in the red with general retailers the biggest losers followed by platinums‚ while only gold miners provided some support.

At 17:00 the All Share [JSE:J203] index closed 0.32% softer at 40 700.45 points and the top 40 slid 0.34% to 36 286.98 points‚ with retailers giving back 1.65%‚ platinums shedding 0.73% and gold miners adding 0.69%.

Major European bourses were trading in the black with London’s FTSE 100 index seen 0.73% higher at 17:00 and the Dow Jones Industrial index 0.23% higher at the same time.

“In the absence of any fresh local news‚ the market remained in sell-off mode established during the morning trade ahead of President Jacob Zuma’s state of the nation address amid negative sentiment created from labour unrest‚ job losses‚ above-inflation wage increases and demands and high production costs in farms and mines‚” Kuziva Muganiwa‚ global markets strategist at Vunani Private Clients said on Tuesday.

“Key data on mining and mining production due for release on Wednesday is also expected to show that the country’s mining-driven economy is still struggling as reflected in the persistent weakness in the rand‚” he added.

“Internationally‚ President Obama delivers his fourth state of the union address on Tuesday night‚ a high-profile opportunity to lay out his plans and hopes for his second term. The president is tipped to spend much of the address proposing ways to ramp up job creation — giving workers the skills they need‚ steering federal resources toward infrastructure projects‚ and boosting energy production and manufacturing — in a way that rewards hard work and strengthens the middle class. The market awaits details from this speech with keen interest‚” said Muganiwa.

On the JSE‚ Absa (ASA) ticked higher by 0.12% to close at R165.10 despite the company releasing full year profit results which missed both analysts’ estimates and the company’s own target‚ hit by real estate losses.

Retailers continued to struggle with Truworths (TRU) falling 3.15% to R104.11 and Shoprite (SHP) giving back 2.69% to R176.

“Retailers have of late been experiencing a massive sell-off on account of perceptions that they were overvalued by at least 20% coming into 2013‚ Muganiwa said.

Tiger Brands (TBS) fell by a whopping 4.18% to R297 after the company released a statement showing that full benefits of recent acquisitions made will only materialise over the next two years while re-affirming that the trading environment in SA continued to be challenging‚ characterised by constrained consumer spending.

SA’s biggest steel producer ArcelorMittal’s (ACL’s) share price slipped to a two-month intraday low on Tuesday after losing almost 7% the previous session following the shutdown of its Vanderbijlpark plant due to damage caused by a fire at the weekend. The counter closed 4.41% lower at R31.66.

Gold miner AngloGold Ashanti (ANG) added 0.85% to close at R254 and Sibanye (SGL) soared 8.48% to R14.17‚ after listing on Monday following its unbundling from Gold Fields (GFI) late last year.

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Rand - Dollar
19.01
-0.4%
Rand - Pound
24.13
-0.1%
Rand - Euro
20.62
-0.1%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.38
+0.3%
Rand - Yen
0.13
+0.5%
Platinum
901.05
-0.2%
Palladium
999.00
-0.7%
Gold
2,149.87
-0.5%
Silver
24.84
-0.8%
Brent Crude
86.89
+1.8%
Top 40
65,953
-0.5%
All Share
72,165
-0.4%
Resource 10
53,256
-0.1%
Industrial 25
99,523
-1.0%
Financial 15
16,664
+0.3%
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