S. African stocks close firmer Tuesday

Mining stocks dominated on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on Tuesday, thanks to a weaker dollar lifting prices for commodities such as platinum.

The all share index was up 0.82 percent at 50,945.3 points at close of session, with the top 40 index gaining 0.84 percent.

The SA rand was trading at R13.56 to the U.S. dollar, R16.55 to the British pound and R14.97 to the euro at 5:00 p.m. local time.

Gold had climbed 0.89 percent to 1288.13 U.S. dollars. The platinum price has gained just more than 5 percent in the past seven sessions, though it remained well below its recent highs of 1,176.25 U.S. dollars an ounce hit in August.

"Clear signs of a cyclical pick-up in China boosted the price of the more industrial commodities last month and more than offset the negative impact of U.S. dollar appreciation," Capital Economics analysts said in a note.

Among individual shares on the JSE, Anglo American picked up 2.76 to R190.49 and Gold Fields rallied 7.76 percent to R59.15 and Harmony added 7.76 percent to R43.3. Endit