/ 15 August 1997

Markets wait for Stals

THURSDAY, 11.00AM

THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange repeated its Wednesday performance on Thursday as it continued following international trends. Only gold shares benefited from the uncertainty on equity markets.

In a flat day’s trade, one of the only notable features was the rand’s loss of more than 2,5c to the dollar, ending the day at R4,6855 from the previous day’s R4,6595 after coming under attack from speculators.

The JSE’s gold index rose 16 points to close at 1 042, while industrials lost five points to finish at 9 238. With market hopes for a drop in interest rates, the financial index sat steady, losing 0,8 points to close at 10 401. Together, they pulled the all share index down seven points to close at 7 530.