Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - SA stocks rose for the third straight session on Tuesday spurred on by investor sentiment that favoured banking and mining shares such as Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS].
Oil prices, which were up 2.5% at 15:25 GMT, also fanned demand for Sasol [JSE:SOL], which added more than 5%.
Johannesburg's Top 40 index gained 1.1% to 45 708 and the All-share ended at 51 949, or 1% higher.
"It's a change of sentiment on the back of higher oil prices and the feeling that some of the resources shares generally have come down too much," said Ferdi Heyneke, portfolio manager at Afrifocus Securities.
Amplats was the biggest blue chip gainer having added 6.4%. This was after shaving more than 13% last year. Rival Impala Platinum [JSE:IMP] ended 5% higher having slid nearly 38% in 2014.
Standard Bank [JSE:SBK] gained nearly 5%, while Nedbank [JSE:NED] climbed 2%.
Retailers have seen an indirect lift from months of oil weakness, which dampened inflation and brightened prospects for cash-strapped South Africans. Truworths [JSE:TRU] and Foschini [JSE:TFGP] were up 3.8 and 3% respectively.
Investors dumped defensive stocks in the healthcare sector, pushing hospital groups Mediclinic [JSE:MDC] and Life Healthcare [JSE:LHC] about 1.7% lower.
Trade was brisk with some 226 million shares changing hands, up from 185 million in the previous session.
