SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Tuesday 5.30pm.
Local stock gained a little ground on a fairly quiet day’s trade on Monday.
Dealers said the market had far stronger undertones, largely as a result of an improvement in international markets. Eastern markets picked up following Wall Street’s hike on Friday, with almost every market showing gains. In Japan, speculation about a possible solution to the country’s banking crisis, pushed the Nikkei up 2,23% to while Hang Seng closed 1,10% higher.
An early strong opening of Wall Street’s Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday afternoon. Dealers said there was strong demand for some stock ahead of Friday’s futures close-out. Investors engage in reverse-basket moves ahead of a future’s close-out in which they sell futures and buy the underlying stock.
Dealers said the big feature of the day was Engen, with R400-million in Engen stock traded on the day. This accounts for 50% of total volume traded on the day. The movement in Engen stock is largely as a result of a takeover bid by Malaysian state oil producer Petronas which is offering R23 a share for Engen stock. Dealers said the volume traded on the day would indicate Petronas scooped over 10% of issued shares.
The only index to lose ground was the all gold index, which shed 74 points to 1022 as the gold price fell further to $290 an ounce from $295. The R150 bond closed the day at a 19,18% yield, while the currency remained fairly flat losing one cent against the dollar to R6,21.