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Johannesburg - The JSE closed the Friday session well in the black‚ as commodity producers made a firm recovery after a huge selloff in the mining and commodity space this week on global economic growth concerns.
Bargain hunters entered the market on Friday across the board with good volume trade seen as the market had a bit of a bounce after a very bleak week. Some stabilisation in the gold and platinum prices also provided some calm in global markets.
At 17:00 the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index closed up 1.50% to 38 422.21 points and the Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] index was 1.61% stronger.
The gold‚ platinum and resource gauges surged 4.51%‚ 2.97% and 2.50% respectively.
The gold price improved 0.67% to trade at $1‚403.16/oz at 5pm local time‚ after falling to a two year low of $1‚321.35 on Tuesday‚ and having suffered it’s biggest once-day loss since 1983 on Monday. Gold has lost 15% so far this year. The spot platinum price was quoted 0.11% firmer at $1‚422.50/oz at the same time.
“We saw some good buying in the mining space today after it had been oversold earlier in the week. Gold counters and the gold price are still very low however‚” said Robert Towell‚ trader at Consilium Securities.
“We will have to see if buying continues into next week or if today was just a dead cat bounce‚” he said.
Major European stock markets were broadly firmer in late trade boosted by mining counters‚ with London’s FTSE 100 up 0.36% at 16:50 local time‚ while across the Atlantic the Dow Jones Industrial index was 0.39% softer at the same time.
Dow industrials opened lower‚ weighed heavily by a selloff in IBM‚ while other measures of the broader market posted modest gains‚ Dow Jones Newswires reported.
IBM‚ which has the highest weighting on the Dow among the average’s 30 components‚ plunged 6.7% after reporting bigger than expected declines in quarterly earnings and revenue.
Investors took comfort in Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso's reassurance the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations did not criticise the country's aggressive monetary policies.
On the JSE‚ resources group Anglo American (AGL) regained 3.31% to R225 after announcing that its metallurgical coal division achieved record first quarter export production. Metallurgical coal production increased 23% to 4.6-million tons‚ as productivity improvements more than offset the effect of excessive rainfall.
Sasol (SOL) added 3.48% to R385.41 and Exxaro (EXX) improved 2.49% to R148.61.
Anglo American Platinum (AMS) gained 3.51% to R338.47 despite stating that group equivalent refined platinum production (equivalent ounces are mined ounces expressed as refined ounces) for the first quarter of the year decreased by 2% year on year to 583‚000oz from 593‚000oz during the first quarter of last year.
Lonmin (LON) improved 3.79% to R37.48‚ while Pallinghurst (PGL) gave back 4.29% to R2.01.
Kumba Iron Ore (KIO) added 1.59% to R442.41 after reporting production of 10.3-million tons in the quarter ended March‚ an increase of 2% year on year and 15% quarter on quarter.
Among gold stocks‚ AngloGold Ashanti (ANG) jumped 5.2% to R171.83 and Harmony (HAR) surged 6.25% to R44.89.
Bargain hunters entered the market on Friday across the board with good volume trade seen as the market had a bit of a bounce after a very bleak week. Some stabilisation in the gold and platinum prices also provided some calm in global markets.
At 17:00 the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index closed up 1.50% to 38 422.21 points and the Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] index was 1.61% stronger.
The gold‚ platinum and resource gauges surged 4.51%‚ 2.97% and 2.50% respectively.
The gold price improved 0.67% to trade at $1‚403.16/oz at 5pm local time‚ after falling to a two year low of $1‚321.35 on Tuesday‚ and having suffered it’s biggest once-day loss since 1983 on Monday. Gold has lost 15% so far this year. The spot platinum price was quoted 0.11% firmer at $1‚422.50/oz at the same time.
“We saw some good buying in the mining space today after it had been oversold earlier in the week. Gold counters and the gold price are still very low however‚” said Robert Towell‚ trader at Consilium Securities.
“We will have to see if buying continues into next week or if today was just a dead cat bounce‚” he said.
Major European stock markets were broadly firmer in late trade boosted by mining counters‚ with London’s FTSE 100 up 0.36% at 16:50 local time‚ while across the Atlantic the Dow Jones Industrial index was 0.39% softer at the same time.
Dow industrials opened lower‚ weighed heavily by a selloff in IBM‚ while other measures of the broader market posted modest gains‚ Dow Jones Newswires reported.
IBM‚ which has the highest weighting on the Dow among the average’s 30 components‚ plunged 6.7% after reporting bigger than expected declines in quarterly earnings and revenue.
Investors took comfort in Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso's reassurance the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations did not criticise the country's aggressive monetary policies.
On the JSE‚ resources group Anglo American (AGL) regained 3.31% to R225 after announcing that its metallurgical coal division achieved record first quarter export production. Metallurgical coal production increased 23% to 4.6-million tons‚ as productivity improvements more than offset the effect of excessive rainfall.
Sasol (SOL) added 3.48% to R385.41 and Exxaro (EXX) improved 2.49% to R148.61.
Anglo American Platinum (AMS) gained 3.51% to R338.47 despite stating that group equivalent refined platinum production (equivalent ounces are mined ounces expressed as refined ounces) for the first quarter of the year decreased by 2% year on year to 583‚000oz from 593‚000oz during the first quarter of last year.
Lonmin (LON) improved 3.79% to R37.48‚ while Pallinghurst (PGL) gave back 4.29% to R2.01.
Kumba Iron Ore (KIO) added 1.59% to R442.41 after reporting production of 10.3-million tons in the quarter ended March‚ an increase of 2% year on year and 15% quarter on quarter.
Among gold stocks‚ AngloGold Ashanti (ANG) jumped 5.2% to R171.83 and Harmony (HAR) surged 6.25% to R44.89.
