South African stocks lost ground for the first time in four sessions on Wednesday, falling more than 2 percent as major miners such as Harmony Gold tumbled on a faltering bullion price.
Gold prices hit their lowest since early January on Wednesday as comments from the European Central Bank lifted the dollar to three-week highs against the euro, accelerating a fall sparked by declining expectations of more US monetary easing.
“The hot money in gold might be finding its way out of gold so there is a knock-on effect for the producers. The anticipated extra round of stimulus from the Federal Reserve isn't forthcoming,” said Sasha Naryshkine, an analyst at asset manager Vestact.
“The minutes from the Federal Reserve released last night is everything to do with the markets today because if you look at it, on balance, all the economic indicators have been good.”
South Africa's blue-chip Top-40 index fell 2.61 percent to 29,425.97, its bigggest percentage decline since early October. The broader All-share index was down 2.3 percent to 33,404.32.
Gold Fields fell nearly 5 percent to 100.73 rand, its lowest level in nine months and Harmony slipped 4.5 percent to 80.50 rand.
AngloGold Ashanti, Africa's largest gold producer, fell 4.24 percent to 269.50 rand.
MTN Group's shares also reversed gains in the previous session to end 3.37 percent lower at 127.55 rand.
MTN faces a suit in a US court in which Turkish rival Turkcell is charging the mobile operator of using bribery and other corrupt practices to win a licence in Iran.
Decliners outnumbered advancers by 209 to 79. A total of 61 stocks were unchanged.
Trade was relatively slow with 209 million shares changing hands, according to preliminary bourse data, compared with the daily average of 256 million sold last year. - Reuters
