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Cape Town - The JSE closed softer on Wednesday as it paused from its all time highs of Tuesday.
Equity markets opened lower and continued to trade in the red for the better part of Wednesday. Steinhoff came under pressure after Reuters reported that the company did not tell investors about nearly $1bn in deals. Its stock price slid to R56 per share before it recovered slightly to close at R59.30 per share, down 4.20% for the day.
Other notable moves lower included Lonmin [JSE:LON] and PPC [JSE:PPC] which closed the day down 5.22% and 3.46% respectively.
Kumba Iron Ore [JSE:KIO] which has experienced a strong rally in recent weeks, closed the day down 2.67% at R290.81 per share.
African Rainbow Minerals [JSE:ARI] and Exarro [JSE:EXX] were also softer, closing down 2.57% and 0.43% respectively.
Naspers [JSE:NPN] came under pressure in the afternoon session following reports that its associate Tencent Holdings had acquired a 10 percent stake in Snap Inc, which owns the social media application Snapchat. The stock closed 2.03% weaker at R3 558.99 per share.
Stadio Holdings [JSE:SDO] continued its impressive run to close the day up 3.54%, while Brait [JSE:BTI] managed to gain some momentum to close the day up 2.80%.
The two Mondi listings recorded decent gains with Mondi Ltd [JSE:MND] gaining 2.85%, while Mondi PLC [JSE:MNP] ended up 2.29%.
Retailer Massmart [JSE:MSM], meanwhile, increased by 2.57% despite a relatively weak rand.
The JSE All-Share index eventually closed the day down 0.17%, while the blue chip Top-40 index lost 0.19%.
The Resources index closed the day down 0.06% and Industrials lost 0.51%. The Financials Index bucked this trend to record to close the day up 0.68%.
Gold
Metal commodities rallied Wednesday as gold reached an intra-day high of $1 285.88 per ounce. The impact on gold miners on the JSE was relatively muted, as blue chip stocks such as Gold Fields [JSE:GFI] and AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] closed 0.40% and 1.01% firmer respectively.
The precious metal was recorded at $1 284.96/Oz when the JSE closed.
Palladium managed to leap back above $1 000/Oz to peak at an intra-day high $1 012.95/Oz. When the JSE closed, it was trading at $1 010.25/Oz.
Platinum also recorded decent gains to trade at $932.45 when the JSE closed. Brent Crude was down on Wednesday when compared to Tuesday’s highs.
This saw Sasol [JSE:SOL] trading weaker to close at R430.84 per share, down 0.97% for the day. Brent Crude was trading at $63.23 per barrel when the JSE closed.
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