S. African stocks driven higher by resources stocks

The Johannesburg stock Exchange (JSE) rallied for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, with the all share rising 0.49 percent to 53,342.04 points at the close of trading session.

Resources shares did the heavy lifting, thanks to higher commodity prices, including copper that hovered at about 82 U.S. dollars per tonne. Diversified miners gained 2.42 percent and platinums gained 1.21 percent, while gold had given up 0.07 percent to sell at 1216.5 dollars an ounce.

The South African rand was trading at R13.31 to the U.S. dollar, R16.59 to the British pound and R14.33 to the euro at 5 p.m. (CAT).

Financial stocks and retailers, which are sensitive to interest rates, were mixed just before the Reserve Bank's repo-rate decision. Economists expected the bank to hold the repo rate at 7 percent.

Anglo American was 3.01 percent up at R230.1 with BHP Billiton gaining 2.23 percent to R249.42.

Impala Platinum Holdings climbed 7.84 percent to R55. PPC Limited shares rose 8.24 percent to sell at R6.96.

Kumba Iron Ore rose 5.46 percent to R175.

In the banking, Standard Bank was off 0.89 percent to R148.2, but Sanlam gained 0.83 percent to R65.75. Enditem