South African stocks close in positive as rand slips
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E-mail Xinhua, October 24, 2017
JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) closed slightly higher on Monday, despite uncertainty about this week's medium-term budget.
The all share index was up 0.09 percent to 57,999.60 points, while the top 40 index had gained 0.13 percent to 51,669.89 points. The industrial index was 0.06 percent lower, and the financial index was 0.06 percent down.
Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba will deliver his first medium-term budget policy statement this week. Uncertainty about his mini budget speech continued to suppress the local market, as there is not much confidence in his political will and ability to act on government's growing budget deficit.
At close of session the local unit was R13.73 to the U.S. dollar, almost 2 percent weaker than Friday's close.
Banks and financial stocks were weaker following speculation that President Jacob Zuma could remove South Africa Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, in yet another Cabinet reshuffle. However, Presidency Spokesperson Bongani Ngqulunga has since rubbished the claims in a statement.
Anglo American was up 2.38 percent to R261.92 and AngloGold Ashanti 1.55 percent to R131. But Harmony Gold dropped 2.16 percent to R21.75 following an announcement last week that it would buy AngloGold Ashanti's Moab Khotsong mine operations.
British American Tobacco advanced 0.53 percent to R883.64.
Barclays Africa recovered 0.97 percent to R142.3 and Sanlam 1.67 percent to R72.88.
Kumba climbed 1.88 percent to R274.35, becoming the star performer in the resources sector. Its share price grew more than 72 percent over the past 90 days on strong demand for its quality iron ore from China.
Mediclinic was down 2.38 percent to R113.01 and Netcare 1.31 percent to R24.2. Enditem
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