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Johannesburg - The JSE rallied over 2% on Wednesday as commodity prices rose and global markets firmed amid an easing in geopolitical tensions after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak indicated he would stand down in September.
The JSE all share index surged 2.04%, with a 2.93% rise in resources spearheading the rally. Platinum miners were up 2.51% and gold miners 2.05%.
Industrials advanced 1.78%, banks collected 1.15% and financials closed down 0.66% higher.
The rand was trading at 7.14 to the dollar from 7.15 at the JSE's close on Tuesday. Gold was quoted at US$1 335.69 a troy ounce from US$1 330.68/oz at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was at $1 832.50/oz from $1 804/oz before.
A local trader said risk aversion appeared to be receding, with President Hosni Mubarak's undertaking to relinquish the Egyptian presidency in September.
He added that good US earnings reports, favourable economic news and rising commodity prices were all offering support to the JSE. Copper was at a record high and that was also feeding through to other commodities, he added.
"We are looking at good risk appetite coming back into the market - the strong commodity prices are spilling over into commodity shares," he said.
"Commodities like your Anglos and Billitons are leading the pack. But we're also seeing some bargain hunting after the sell-off over the last few days," another trader added.
Dow Jones Newswires reports however that US stocks paused after Tuesday's strong run-up, as a flare-up in uncertainty out of Egypt offset encouraging private-sector employment in the US and another raft of corporate earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 14 points, or 0.1%, to 12 027 in early trading, while the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was off four points at 1304 and the Nasdaq Composite slipped five points to 2746.
The market was digesting an increase of 187 000 private-sector jobs in January, the 12th consecutive month of private-sector employment growth, according to Automatic Data Processing. But ADP lowered its December figure, to 247 000 new jobs from a previous estimate of 297 000.
The encouraging private-sector jobs number comes ahead of initial jobless claims data on Thursday and the closely-watched official monthly jobs number on Friday.
Wednesday's stock declines were broad-based, with all of the S&P 500's 10 sectors declining. Weighing most heavily on the index were materials and financial stocks.
