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South Africa stocks close higher Monday

Xinhua, May 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) all share started the week on a firm note on Monday, lifted up by rise in commodity price.

The All-share index was 1.57 percent up at 52,412.68 points, with the Top 40 index gaining 1.88 percent to 46, 258.34 points. The commodity index was 4.37 percent stronger, with the Gold index 0.16 percent up and the Industrial index lifted by 1.48 percent. The Financial index was also 0.30 percent up. Gold was trading 0.66 percent up at 1,275.26 U.S. dollars an ounce.

The local currency slipped to its weakest level against the dollar since March 24 at about R15.62 on Monday after a newspaper report saying that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan faces arrest. However, the government denied the allegations.

The common view in the market is that the SA Reserve Bank will leave rates unchanged on Thursday.

Among the big miners, the big dual-listed conglomerate, which dropped sharply last week, recovered strongly on improved sentiment in the commodity market.

BHP Billiton, which is far less volatile than the other conglomerates, gained 5.57 percent to R182.49 after giving up 1.25 percent last week.

The two biggest platinum shares also gained. Anglo American Platinum traded 4.53 percent firmer at R402.45 and Impala Platinum gained 4.60 percent to R52.31.

Ranking in the top 10 losers was Bell Equipment, whose shares slumped 8.70 percent after investors bought and sold 10,094 shares in five deals, sending the share price down to R10.50. Barloworld tumbled 6.79 percent to R65.62 after 5,481 deals saw the sale of 3,350,971 shares. Endit