Gold stocks tumbled into the red at the opening on Monday on the back of a lower bullion price and a poor performance by their ADRs in the US on Friday. Leading the upside were heavyweight dual-listed stocks, which were reaping the benefits of a softer rand and strong close on Wall Street.
At 0917, the gold mining index was 3,91% weaker. The all share index and financial indices were up a flattish 0,18% and 0,12% respectively, while the all share industrial index was 0,43% firmer. The IT index was up 0,80%. The resources index was flat (-0,03%), as was the platinum mining index (+0,08%).
The rand was trading at 8,3838 to the dollar from 8,3338 when the JSE closed on Friday, while gold was quoted at $346,10 an ounce from $354,50 an ounce at the JSE’s last close.
A dealer said the opening on the JSE had been very quiet. He expected the day’s volumes to be low as US markets are closed for Presidents Day.
The dealer said that while the weak rand was helping, the JSE had taken its cue more from world markets than the currency.
Leading the upside of the market was London-listed diversified resources group Anglo American (AGL), which added 2,28% or R2,70 to R121. BHP Billiton (BIL) was up 27 cents at R41 and synthetic fuels group Sasol (SOL) was 1,15% or one rand stronger at R88.
Swiss-listed luxury goods group Richemont (RCH) soared 4,58% or 60 cents to R13,70 after being under pressure last week and London- listed IT group Dimension Data (DDT) was up 1,69% or five cents at three rand.
However, London-listed beverages group SABMiller (SAB) shed 2,50% or R1,30 at R50,70 and steel producer Iscor (ISC) plummeted 9,09% or two rand to R20.
On the gold mining index Harmony (HAR) was down 4,87% or R5,99 at R117. AngloGold (ANG) retreated 4,73% or R13 to R262 and Gold Fields (GFI) gave up 2,80% or three rand to R104.
In addition to the softer bullion price and stodgy performance by the ADRs on Friday, AngloGold and Gold Fields’ losses were exacerbated by the fact they went ex-dividend on Monday.
Harmony is currently trading cum-dividend with the last day to trade
on Friday.
In New York on Friday, the Dow Jones industrials jumped 158,93 points, or 2,05%, to close at the session high of 7,908.80. For the week, the index gained 44,57 points, or 0,6%.
The Nasdaq Composite, which gained 32,73, or 2,56%, to close at 1310,17 on Friday, climbed 27,70, or 2,2%, during the week. The S&P 500 advanced 17,52, or 2,14%, to 834,89 Friday and gained 5,20, or 0,6%, for the week.
In Tokyo on Monday, the Nikkei ended up 0,8% at 8,771.89 as war fears eased a bit, although stocks were kept heavy by unwinding of mutually held shares. – I-Net-Bridge