{"id":9418,"date":"2012-03-29T03:37:04","date_gmt":"2012-03-29T01:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/03\/s-african-stocks-edge-down-ahead-of-rates-decision\/"},"modified":"2012-03-29T03:37:04","modified_gmt":"2012-03-29T01:37:04","slug":"s-african-stocks-edge-down-ahead-of-rates-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/s-african-stocks-edge-down-ahead-of-rates-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"S.African stocks edge down ahead of rates decision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">JOHANNESBURG, March 28<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; South African stocks<br \/>\nended slightly lower on Wednesday as market momentum slowed<br \/>\nafter three straight days of gains while investors paused ahead<br \/>\nof a central bank decision on interest rates this week.<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A downgrade on the outlook for Africa&#8217;s largest economy by<br \/>\nSP also weighed on sentiment. The ratings agency said it was<br \/>\nworried not enough was being done to combat the country&#8217;s<br \/>\nchronic unemployment.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All key exchanges are near historical highs, which means<br \/>\nthe risk and reward play is tighter,&#8221; said Martin Lentsoane, a<br \/>\ntrader at Newstrading.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The JSE Top-40 index dipped 0.81 percent to<br \/>\n29,715.14 and the broader All-share index closed 0.7<br \/>\npercent lower at 33,621.93.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Lentsoane said retailers and industrials were holding up<br \/>\nwell this year, as were banks, but resources had slipped.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Harmony Gold Mining was among the three worst<br \/>\nperformers, shedding almost 2.4 percent, with diversified<br \/>\nresources group Exxaro falling by about the same<br \/>\npercentage.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>On the plus side, supermarket chain Shoprite was<br \/>\nthe top gainer, having added 3.2 percent by the close, while<br \/>\ncellular network provider Vodacom added 1.2 percent.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Investors have been reluctant to take large positions ahead<br \/>\nof the central bank&#8217;s rate decision on Thursday. Economists are<br \/>\npredicting rates will remain unchanged from the current 5.5<br \/>\npercent.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Market players will be watching if the bank takes a hawkish<br \/>\nstand on inflation, which breached its 3-6 percent target in<br \/>\nNovember and has been above the band since then.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Decliners outnumbered advances 173 to 107 with 66 shares<br \/>\nunchanged. A total of 164 million shares changed hands,<br \/>\npreliminary data showed, below a 200-day moving average of about<br \/>\n240 million shares.   \t<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Sherilee Lakmidas; Editing by Jon Herskovitz)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\n<p>         \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JOHANNESBURG, March 28 (Reuters) &#8211; South African stocks ended slightly lower on Wednesday as market momentum slowed after three straight days of gains while investors paused ahead of a central bank decision on interest rates this week. A downgrade on the outlook for Africa&#8217;s largest economy by SP also weighed on sentiment. The ratings agency [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}