South African bourse closes firmer on resource and industrial stocks

JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) closed firmer on Friday, assisted in part by large-cap resource and industrial stocks.

The all-share index surpassed the 60,000-point mark again.

Resource shares were supported by higher commodity prices, as the dollar weakened against major currencies, pushing counters such as Anglo American to its highest point since early 2012.

The all-share index was up 0.8 percent to 60,083.13 points at close of the trading session, in line with positive sentiment on world markets.

BHP was up 2.94 percent to R279.59, Anglo American 0.98 percent to R298.08, Sasol 2.17 percent to R448 and DRD Gold 4.72 percent to R399.

Shares in Naspers, which is the biggest company by market cap in the all share, gained 2.33 percent to R3,6137.4.

Aspen continued to be volatile, dropping 4.8 percent to R256,05 after gaining 11 percent on Thursday.

Nedbank gained 1.2 percent to R252.21 and investment group PSG 1.54 percent to R253.85.

Steinhoff shed 7.85 percent to R6.22, while Shoperite gained 0.91 percent to R213.86.

The rand slipped about 1 percent against the euro and sterling on Friday afternoon, but was only slightly softer against the dollar, despite the greenback reaching a three-year low to the euro.

At 3 p.m. local time, the rand was at R12.4146 to the U.S. dollar from Thursday's R12.3898, at R15.0639 to the euro from R14.9076, and at R16.9256 to the pound from R16.7781. Enditem