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Cape Town - The JSE closed firmer on Monday as mining stocks and Naspers propelled the local bourse higher.
Naspers [JSE:NPN] closed the day up 2.06% to trade at R3541.54 per share as it followed the upwards trend of its Hang Seng-listed associate Tencent Holdings [HKG: 0700] which closed up 2.45%.
Diversified miners BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL] and Anglo American PLC [JSE:AGL] pushed the Blue-Chip index higher as they climbed 2.64% and 2.41% respectively.
Stadio [JSE:SDO] and ArcelorMittal [JSE:ACL] ended the day among the biggest gainers, closing up 10.00% and 3.44%.
JSE-listed miners traded positive, with notable movers including Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS], AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] and Kumba Iron Ore, which gained 4.13%, 3.42% and 2.46% respectively.
Banking stocks also closed firmer on Monday, with First Rand [JSE:FSR] gaining 0.76%, and Standard Bank [JSE:SBK] gaining 1.27%.
Despite the strength in other mining stocks, Lonmin [JSE:LON] closed 5.93% weaker.
Other notable moves lower were from PPC Ltd [JSE:PPC] and Telkom [JSE:TKG] which closed 4.69% and 2.18% weaker respectively.
Retailers Truworths [JSE:TRU] and Woolworths [JSE:WHL] came under pressure to close the day down 0.93% and 1.26%.
Rand hedges Richemont [JSE:CFR] and British American Tobacco [JSE:BTI], meanwhile, retreated to close the day down 0.55% and 0.27%.
The JSE All-Share index eventually closed the day up 0.57% whilst the Top-40 index gained 0.69%.
All major indices followed this trend and ended the day in the green. The Industrials index firmed by 0.41%, while the Financials index managed to eke out gains of 0.08%. The Resources index jumped 1.71%.
Rand
The rand opened weaker Monday, and slid to an intra-day low of R14.29 to the US Dollar. However the local currency rebounded into the afternoon as the US dollar weakened. The rand peaked at R14.15/$. When the JSE closed it was trading at R14.18/$.
After a minor sell-off on Friday, gold bounced back marginally in Monday's session to reach an intra-day high of $1 273.24 per ounce. This bounce was principally due to a softer US dollar, which saw the US dollar index reaching a low of 94.828 index points. The precious metal was trading at $1 271.16/Oz just after the JSE closed.
Palladium and platinum both opened firmer on Monday, but subsequently lost ground towards the JSE's close. Palladium, which peaked to an intra-day high of $1 007.40/Oz shed all its earlier gains and broke below $1 000/Oz to trade at $997.97/Oz just after the JSE closed.
Platinum followed a similar trend to trade at $920.09/Oz at the local bourse's close.
Brent Crude, meanwhile, inched higher despite the news of the crackdown on high-ranking Saudi nationals on corruption allegations. It peaked at $62.90 per barrel before retracing slightly to trade $62.54 per barrel just after the JSE closed.
* Fin24 is part of Media24, which is owned by Naspers.
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