Johannesburg - The JSE ended firmer on Monday‚ lifted mostly by industrial shares‚ which benefited from rand weakness.
At 5pm‚ the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was up 0.49% to 36 620.28 points‚ with the Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] index gaining 0.56% to 32 457.76 points‚ a fresh closing record.
Industrials rose 0.88%‚ boosted by rand hedges such as Richemont‚ British American Tobacco and SABMiller.
“The rand-hedged stocks dictated the session‚ while mining shares lagged because of lower commodity prices‚” said Mark Wilkes‚ trader at GT247.com.
The rand weakened to R8.8011 to the dollar from 8.7275 previously as investors worried about further downgrades on the country’s credit ratings.
Leading European markets pared gains in late trade but still remained in the black‚ with London’s FTSE 100 up 0.16%‚ while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was last seen up 0.09%.
Among individual shares on the JSE‚ Richemont rallied 2.22% to R56.63‚ a fresh record high‚ British American Tobacco climbed 1.98% to R457.16 and SABMiller rose 1.55% to R375.02.
Telkom soared 5.56% to R19 amid market speculation that its mobile network subsidiary 8ta and Cell C could merge their operations.
Banking share Capitec dropped 4.18% to R206.50‚ due to a dividend pay-out.
Anglo American shed 1.05% to R252.73 and Lonmin lost 2.51% to R69.15.