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JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) struggled to make headway on Thursday, with mining shares pressured by commodity prices.
The all share index was off 0.56 percent to 49,927.1 points at close of session, as resource and gold indices shed 0.71 percent percent and 3.3 percent, respectively.
The South Africa rand was trading at R14.09 to the U.S. dollar, R17.8 to the British pound and R14.97 to the euro at 5:00 p.m. (CAT).
Precious metals were weaker, with gold falling 0.63 percent to sell at 1164.89 U.S. dollars an ounce, and platinum giving up 0.3 percent to sell at 903.15 dollars an ounce.
Prices of gold and platinum extended their recent declines, partially reflecting a strong dollar environment on the eve of the closely-watched U.S. nonfarm payrolls on Friday.
Big industrial stocks were mostly lower despite the relatively weaker rand environment but banks held up fairly well; the sector has made gains in each of past three months. Enditem
