SARAH BULLEN in Johannesburg | Friday 6.00pm.
THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange rallied on Friday to end a turbulent week in positive territory, taking its cue from Hong Kong’s remarkable rebound to push all indices higher.
The day’s spike after the badly battered 33-stock Hang Seng Index regained much of the ground lost this week to gain 7,8%, sparked by an improved Japanese yen. Further support stemmed from a 65 point, 1,2%, in London’s FTSE Index which by midday had regained all Thursday’s losses.
Dealers said that while some domestic economic data was released on the day, all eye’s were on global markets.
At close of trade the all share index had inched up 1,47%, 91 points, to 6291. The financial index gained 134 points, 1,25% to 10865 while the industrial index closed 1,02%, 74 points, at 7352. The gold price remained “dormant” for most of the day, dealers said, hovering around the $284 an ounce level. The all gold index gained 2,52%, 16 points, however, to close at 893.
Bonds staged a nice recovery dealers said, with the R150 closing just off the day’s best level at 16,68%.
Positive sentiment spilled over into the currency markets which firmed to around R6,31 to the dollar before giving up some of its gains to settle at R6,34 by 4.30pm — just two cents firmer than Tuesday’s rate despite a violently turbulent week.