South African gold and platinum shares lifted the Johannesburg bourse in early afternoon trade on Monday, but financial stocks edged weaker on profit-taking, dealers said.
At 1220 GMT, the all-share index was up 1,4% or 132,31 points at 9,829.75, with R470-million worth of shares changing hands. Advancers outpaced decliners 153 to 106.
”The gold shares are very strong but there is not a lot of action, turnover is very low,” said one trader. Adding that the stronger rand was not having much effect on the market.
The country’s second biggest gold producer, Goldfields, skipped 3,4% to R113,75. Peer Anglogold jumped 2,9% at R574.
Spot gold was supported by continued unease on whether Iraq would comply fully with a UN resolution to disarm trading at $318.9/1 an ounce at 1145 GMT.
The gold index rose 2,4% and the platinum index added about one percent.
Platinum was trading at 599,00, extending support to Angloplat which firmed 1,2% to R381. Implats added 0,42% to R601,90.
A firmer rand often impacts negatively on dual-listed groups like luxury good producer Richemont but the Swiss based group picked up 3,64% to R18,30 on the back of its overseas listing.
Financials which tend to gain on the strength of the rand struggled in negative territory as investors booked profits, dealers said.
Banks dropped 0,8%. The rand was trading steadily at 9,57 per dollar. Standard Bank fell 0,3% to R32,91, with Nedcor dropping 1,6% to R121,70.
Absa stumbled 2,0% to R33,90 after it reported a lower-than-expected rise in half-year earnings and gave a cautious outlook for the full year. – Reuters