FRIDAY, 12.00NOON
INDUSTRIAL shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Thursday ignored a sliding rand to make cautious advances on the back of a strong bond market as hopes for an early interest rate cut were renewed.
Government’s benchmark R150 long bond once again breached the 14% yield mark amid cautious optimism over comments on a rates cut by Reserve Bank governor Chris Stals. This led the way for the industrial index to climb 28 points to 9 150, while the financial index shed 66 points to 10 437 on profit-taking by institutions after the index’s recent record high.
The gold index was helped somewhat by the rand’s sudden slide to a six-month low against the dollar, at R4,6080, with the gold index losing a single point on the day to 981. The all share index ended tha day modestly up — 10 points higher at 7 484,5