South African bourse closes higher, buoyed by gold mining shares

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) closed on Thursday at its highest intraday level for the year so far, buoyed by positive sentiment from global equities which continue to rally positively.

Rising gold mining shares led gains across sectors. The all share index closed 0.37 percent higher at 53,921.00 points and the blue-chip top 40 added 0.23 percent. Platinums were up 3.43 percent and the gold index recovered 2.33 percent. Resources climbed 0.74 percent and banks firmed 1.95 percent.

The platinum price was 0.56 percent up at 993.65 dollars an ounce, and the gold price rebounded 0.31 percent to 1,222.79 dollars a fine ounce.

At the close of trading session, the rand was trading at R15.61 to the U.S. dollar, R22.89 to the British pound and R17.47 to the euro.

"Current moves to the upside suggest that investors were more comfortable with the notion of higher interest rates in the U.S.," Momentum said in a note in the morning.

Among individual shares Anglo American rose 6.79 percent to R398.33. Sasol was 1.99 percent up at R487.50 on the higher oil price.

Among gold stocks, AngloGold Ashanti was 3.31 percent higher at R217.85.

Impala Platinum led the gains among platinum stocks, firming 4.01 percent to R49.51.

Among banks, Barclays Africa was 3.60 percent firmer at R151.25.

On the top 10 gainers list was Pan African Resources, whose shares climbed 13.42 percent to sell at R3.38 after 8,264,144 shares were exchanged in 369 deals. Also on the list was Grindrod whose shares rose to R12.08 after 530 deals traded 823,001 shares, a boost in the share price of 5.59 percent.

Assore was amongst the biggest movers downwards, as shares tumbled 7.23 percent to R165.13 after investors bought and sold 135,952 shares in 920 deals. After 250 deals exchanged a total of 207,522 shares, Adcorp Holdings slide 7.10 percent to R16.09. Endit