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Johannesburg - South African stocks were on the back foot on Thursday, dragged lower by platinum miners after the world's second-biggest producer Impala posted a sharp fall in earnings in the aftermath of a five-month strike.
Impala Platinum posted a 74% drop in full-year earnings and warned of a tough time ahead on the cost front as it struggles to ramp up production and implement wage increases of up to 20%.
Other platinum mining companies, Anglo American Platinum and Lonmin, lost 2.1 and 2.9% respectively.
Impala shares dropped the most on South Africa's Top-40 index, falling more than 5% to R97.
The benchmark index lost more than 1% to 45 840 while the wider All-share index was down 0.9%t to 51 133.
High-end food and clothing retailer Woolworths was among the risers, gaining 2% to R79.06, after posting a 18% increase in underlying full-year profit.
The results bucked the trend of some other retailers such as Massmart Holdings, which reported a 25% tumble in first-half profit, reflecting the knock-on effect from the waves of strikes earlier this year.
Massmart shares shed nearly 2%.
Activity was relatively robust with 182 million shares traded with decliners outpacing advancers 159 to 134 companies.
