TUESDAY, 5.30PM
SHARES on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange recovered on Tuesday as sentiment improved following the arrest of gold’s headlong slide.
The gold index gained 2% to end the day 20,7 points up at 924,6, while industrials gained 13,6 points to close at 8 756,6, together pulling the all share index up 13,2 points to 7 306,4.
The recovery of gold shares followed oversold positions from the previous day’s huge dip in the bullion price, which regained its composure slightly on Tuesday, closing in London above the $320/oz level. Bullion ended in New York on Monday at $318,25/oz from a close of $325,25 on Thursday — higher than people expected and this breathed a bit of life back into the troubled market, dealers said. Gold was last quoted at $321 from a London afternoon fix of $320,80/oz on Tuesday.
The government R150 long bond was yielding 14,105% at the end of the day’s session — 8,5 basis points stronger than its previous close.
The rand, however, struggled to maintain R4,54 to the dollar, slightly weaker than the previous day, as nervousness about the fate of bullion took its toll. The Reserve Bank entered the market at one stage in an attempt to prop up the local currency around the R4,55 level.