Platinum producers help extend South African shares' decline

* Top-40 index down 0.41 pct, All-share loses 0.37 pct

* Platinum index shaves more than 1 pct

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 8 (Reuters) - South African shares ended lower for the fourth straight day on Wednesday, dragged down by platinum producers such as Anglo American Platinum AMSJ.J and also taking a cue from weaker U.S. stocks.

No. 1 producer Anglo American Platinum dropped 1.6 percent to 381.33 rand, following news that Zimbabwe, where it has operations, had issued a Jan. 18 ultimatum for platinum miners to present proposals on refining the metal locally.

News Search ID:nL6N0KI0UO

Smaller producer Impala Platinum IMPJ.J lost 1.5 percent to 126 rand, while the industry's index .JPLAT shaved more than 1 percent.

Trade was thin, as investors looked ahead to U.S. jobs data at the end of the week to get further guidance on the state of the world's largest economy.

"The market will be quiet for the next two days. On Friday we've got the U.S. payroll numbers and the markets are waiting for that," said Malcolm Moller, an equities trader at Vunani Securities.

The Top-40 index .JTOPI slid 0.41 percent to 40,962.55, while the All-share .JALSH was 0.37 percent weaker at 45,696.97.

Both indices hit lifetime highs earlier this year, propelled by companies with overseas exposure.

After two days of losing value, gold shares regained their shine as the local currency weakened. The rand ZAR=D3 fell 0.5 percent boosting producers such as Harmony , which earn revenue in dollars but make local payments in rand.

Harmony was up 1.3 percent at 27.60 rand.

In total some 132 million shares were sold, according to preliminary data, but trade could remain feeble for the rest of the week.

U.S. stocks fell in early trade as investors took profits from the S&P 500's biggest daily gain in three weeks, and following a better-than-expected private sector jobs report, which showed the strongest increase in 13 months.

Another employment report, the nonfarm payrolls statistics for December, is expected on Friday.

(Reporting by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura; editing by David Dolan)

((helen.nyambura@thomsonreuters.com)(+27 11 775 3034)(Reuters Messaging: helen.nyambura.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: SAFRICA MARKETS/