Johannesburg – The JSE weakened on Tuesday morning as the continued difficulties in the South African mining sector weighed on local markets.
“Harmony Gold Mining’s announcement yesterday that it will keep its Kusasalethu mine closed while it considers whether to continue with operations or close down and retrench workers is not positive for the short-term prospects of the labour market‚” Absa Capital said in a note on Tuesday.
At 9:14‚ the All Share [JSE:J203] index was 0.11% weaker at 40 119.62 points with gold miners adding 0.68% in value.
“This is indicative of the lingering adverse effects of the labour strife in the mining industry during Q3-Q4 last year‚ as companies rethink the risk of doing businesses in SA‚” it added.