/ 21 July 1997

Gold recovers on JSE as Wall Street slides

MONDAY, 11.00AM

THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s all gold index followed bullion’s latest recovery on Friday, picking up 27,7 points to close at 992 (after an intraday high of 1 005,1) as gold rallied $4,80 to $324,20/oz.

Analysts, however, remain cautious about gold’s fortunes, saying the situation is nothing to get excited about, and a rally will only set a trend above $332/oz.

Meanwhile, the New York stock exchange’s Dow Jones index took an unexpected dip on Friday, falling 130 points to 7 891. Major world exchanges are expected to be watching Wall Street nervously this week. Markets are expecting US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan to make a statement on raining interest rates when he testifies before Congress on Wednesday, as analysts believe the US economy is racing ahead.