S.African stocks fall for 7th straight day, rand weak

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African markets remained on the back foot on Thursday, with stocks notching up a seventh consecutive day of losses, tracking weaker global stocks, and the rand hovering near a one-month low to the dollar.

The Johannesburg Top-40 index of blue-chip stocks ended 2.08 percent lower at 18,345.99 points, its lowest close since December 8, while the All-share index dropped 1.92 percent to 20,441.93 points.

"Commodity prices and world markets ... that's what the whole market is driven by at the moment," Tubby Goodwin, a trader at Investec Securities said.

European Shares fell and Wall Street opened more than two percent lower as banking shares dropped, knocked by concerns about funding for Bank of America and Citigroup.

Gold Fields Ltd, the world's No. 4 gold producer, was down 9.19 percent to 77.37 rand in Johannesburg and Harmony Gold dropped 2.89 percent to 92.50 rand.

Petrochemicals group Sasol lost 3.63 percent to 284 rand as the oil price fell more than 2 percent.

The rand pared gains in a volatile session late in Johannesburg as the dollar firmed against the euro after the European Central Bank's cut its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 2 percent.

The local currency was trading at 10.18 against the dollar at 1545 GMT, 0.1 percent weaker than its previous close in New York, after earlier touching 10.25, just off Wednesday's one-month low.

It had rallied to 9.9666, in line with a brief euro rally against the dollar.