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Stocks hit by strike threats

Johannesburg - South African share prices dropped on Monday, bruised by the threat of further strikes in the country's platinum sector and a US political fight that has rattled global markets.

A regulatory review of telephone calling charges also depressed prices of mobile giants MTN and Vodacom.

The Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] index slid 0.6% to 39 050.88 and the All Share [JSE:J203] lost 0.46% to 43 725.70.

"The leading story today is still the US government lockdown, which is the main reason we are down," said Evan Giannakis, an equities dealer at Imara SP Reid brokerage.

The impasse in Washington has led to a partial government shut down, raised worries of slowing US growth and increased the risk that a compromise will not be reached in time to meet the October 17 deadline on raising the debt ceiling.

Reaching a deal would avert a potential sovereign default by the world's largest economy.

Another millstone around Johannesburg's stock market was a labour union warning that a strike at Anglo Platinum (Amplats) [JSE:AMS] could spread to other major producers.

Amplats fell 1% while major platinum firm Lonmin was down 1.5%.

Vodacom and MTN were down on news regulators intend to slash fees the mobile operators charge fixed-line carrier Telkom for calls to their networks by up to 75% by 2016.

Vodacom, which has the largest number of South African subscribers and a market value of more than $18bn, was down more than 6.3% to R116.

Bigger continental rival MTN dropped 3.1% to R193. Telkom, on the other hand, jumped 5% to R26.50, its highest since March 2012.

Higher spot gold prices added a sheen to Johannesburg-listed bullion producers such as Harmony and AngloGold Ashanti. Both added more than 2%.

Activity was relatively slow with only 129 million shares trade, according to preliminary statistics. The number of companies whose shares fell was 161 compared with 137 that rose.


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Rand - Dollar
19.01
-0.5%
Rand - Pound
24.01
-0.5%
Rand - Euro
20.52
-0.3%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.35
+0.0%
Rand - Yen
0.13
-0.6%
Platinum
900.15
+0.4%
Palladium
1,000.00
-0.2%
Gold
2,209.40
+0.7%
Silver
24.58
-0.3%
Brent Crude
86.09
-0.2%
Top 40
68,189
+0.8%
All Share
74,373
+0.6%
Resource 10
57,035
+2.5%
Industrial 25
103,662
+0.4%
Financial 15
16,492
-0.2%
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