Gold stocks glistered on the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) at midday on Monday, helped by a higher bullion price and a strong performance by their ADRs in New York on Friday night. Overall, the market was firmer, but very quiet.
At 11.50am, the all-share index was up 0,95%. Resources rallied 1,55% in morning trade, with the gold mining index soaring 2,51% and the platinum mining index jumping 0,96%. The all-share industrial and financial indices firmed 0,54% and 0,42% respectively, while the banks index was 0,41% better.
The rand was quoted at R7 per dollar from R7,02 when the JSE closed on Friday, while gold was quoted at $407,25 an ounce from $406/oz at the JSE’s last close.
“We’ve had a bit of slow start to the week. Gold shares are the shining stars today on the good gold price this morning. The ADRs were also very strong on Friday,” a dealer said.
She added that diversified resources group Anglo American had also benefited from gold’s strength, while BHP Billiton was up after being upgraded to “overweight” from “neutral” by JP Morgan.
JP Morgan also downgraded Anglo to “underweight” from “neutral” and Rio Tinto plc to “neutral” from “overweight”, according to AFX.
Billiton was up more than 2,5% in London, where Anglo was just more than 0,5% stronger.
On the local bourse, Anglo added 1,08% or R1,70 to R159,80 and Billiton surged 2,16% or R1,25 to R59,25.
Gold Fields was up 3,18% or R2,84 to R92,15, Harmony was 3,62% or R3,99 higher at R114,24 and AngloGold climbed R1,70 to R294,70.
Impala Platinum improved 1,26% or seven rand to R562.
Swiss-listed luxury goods group Richemont gained 1,61% or 28 cents to R17,72, London-listed IT group Dimension Data rocketed 4,25% or 24 cents to R5,89 and media group Naspers picked up 1,92% or 82 cents to R43,52.
Services group Bidvest was 1,04% or 50 cents better at R48,50.
Financials to firm included London-listed Old Mutual, which was 10 cents in the black at R12,10.
Standard Bank was 1,1% or 45 cents firmer at R41,20 and Absa ticked up 15 cents to R45,25.
On the JSE’s downside, telecommunications group Telkom was 1,31% or 98 cents softer at R74, but the weakness was on fairly thin volumes.
Food group Tiger Brands fell 50 cents to R81,50 and steel producer Iscor shed 25 cents to R30,55.
Banking group Nedcor dipped 55 cents to R67,45 and Sanlam eased five cents to R8,80. — I-Net Bridge