Resources help snap losing streak

Resource stocks were the flavour of the day on Wednesday as the JSE snapped a three-day losing streak, with commodity prices buoyed by US President Donald Trump’s speech to the US Congress on Tuesday.

Gold and platinum stocks were lower on the stronger dollar, with the gold price retreating 0.66% to $1,239/oz in late trade. At the JSE’s close, platinum was down 0.44% at $1,014/oz.

The Dow Jones opened 0.9% higher, hitting 21,000 for the first time, as Trump’s speech buoyed sentiment.

Analysts were lavish in their praise of his performance.

The JSE all share closed 1.05% higher at 51,682.20 and the blue-chip top 40 added 1.24%. Resources rose 2.26% and banks gained 1.82%. Food and drug retailers lifted 1.52%. Industrials were up 0.77%.

The gold index shed 1.75% and platinums lost 0.92%. Property was off 0.21% after opening 1.2% lower in the morning.

Among the big miners, BHP Billiton jumped 3.87% to R217.02. Glencore rose 3.78% to R54.10 and Anglo American added 3.21% to R210.14. Kumba Iron Ore was up 3.57% to R222.15 and Exxaro rallied 4.15% to R112.40.

Rand hedges shrugged off rand strength, with Anheuser-Busch InBev gaining 1.13% to R1,434. Richemont was 1.66% higher at R97.12.

Among gold stocks, AngloGold Ashanti shed 2.21% to R142.39.

Impala Platinum lost 3.54% to R42.48.

Among the banks, Nedbank rose 2.45% to R251. Standard Bank added 2.21% to R146.38 and Barclays Africa gained 2.17% to R155.25.

The rand remained on the front foot in late trade, despite the stronger dollar. At 5.40pm, it was at R13.0549/$, from R13.1312/$ on Tuesday.

The yield on the benchmark R186 bond was unchanged at 8.79%.

At 5.44pm, the local near-dated top-40 Alsi futures index had gained 0.9% to 44,516 points with 32,201 contracts traded from Tuesday’s 26,249.