SARAH BULLEN, Cape Town | Monday 5.30pm
THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange showed no signs of slowing down its bull run on Monday as it raced to a spectacular close powered by IT shares.
By close of trade the all share index was 191 points (2,12%) in the green at 9226, with the industrial index — which houses some of the JSE’s blue-chip IT stock — up 309 points (3,13%). Dealers said strong gains were seen in Didata, Comparex and Datatech with the heavyweight Alsi-40 index reflecting the demand for blue-chip stock with a rise pf 2,23%.
The all gold index managed to pack on 40 points (3,48%) despite the controversy surrounding the resignation on Friday of Brett Kebble, the number two director in the broad JCI group.
Shares in the JCI stable veered in different directions on Monday, with JCI Gold losing 5% to 425 cents and parent Consolidated African Mines fell 15% to 58 cents.
Pushing the gold board higher was a climb in the gold price to $285,50 (bid) an ounce from the New York close of $283,95.
The strong start to the day was seen as a combination of local positive sentiment and a boost from the Dow Jones Industrial Average which on Friday reached a record close. Also pushing the local markets early in the day was a strong performance in Asia which saw the Nikkei Dow up 2,54% on the day. Financial shares packed on 265 points (2,27%).
There was big news out of Europe on Monday, with British pharmaceutical giants SmithKline Beecham and Glaxo Wellcome annoucing they have agreed to merge in a stock swap. The merger will create a company worth 108-billion, with combined 1998 sales of 15-billion and a 7,3% share of global pharmaceutical sales Shares in the two companies fell shortly after the announcement, with dealers saying the market had already priced the deal into the market based on an announcement on Friday that the two were in talks.