Strong gains in gold miners boost JSE

Johannesburg (Mar 6)  The JSE All Share had risen 0.64% by close of day on Thursday, led by 3.98% gains in gold mining shares.

The rand was trading at R10.62 to the US dollar and R17.73 to the British pound.

Gold had climbed 0.66% to sell at $1344.60 an ounce, while Brent crude oil had slipped 1.35% to $107.82 a barrel.

International markets

This morning, the Japanese Nikkei closed 1.59% higher as exporters  were given a boost by a weaker yen. The Shanghai index in China finished  up 0.32% led by gains in property developers, as investors bet that the government won’t tighten up property restrictions in the near future.

European markets were higher at 5pm SA time, with the DAX edging up 0.10%, the CAC40 rising 0.58% and the FTSE 100 gaining 0.27% after the European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged after economic data was better than forecast.

On US markets, the Dow Jones had risen 0.44%, the S&P 500 had gained 0.38% and the Nasdaq lifted 0.29% as investors kept an eye on tensions in the Ukraine and jobless claims fell to their lowest level in three months.

Share price news

Amongst the top gainers on Thursday was Gold Fields (GFI) whose shares climbed 6.17% to sell at R40.10 after 1,251 deals exchanged a total of 1,087,921 shares. Rising 5.48% was PSG Group (PSG) after investors traded 181,943 shares in 516 deals, boosting the share price to R95.50.

After 311 deals traded 674,332 shares, Vukile Property Fund (VKE) had fallen 3.99%  to R15.65 a share, joining the top ten losers list today. Torre Industrial Holdings (TOR) slid to R2.60 after investors bought and sold 115,758 shares in 16 deals, causing a loss in share price of 3.70%.

Source: Sharenet.za