All share tops 57,000 as rand slips

The JSE closed at a record high on Thursday, with the all share briefly topping 57,000 points for the first time, led by miners and rand hedges.

The industrial and top 40 indices also pushed to record highs, with the direction of the bourse again largely determined by a few large shares, including Naspers and Vodacom.

Dual-listed shares rose, and the rand was on the back foot against the dollar, as markets await crucial US non-farm payroll data on Friday.

The gold index led losses, but Schroders fund manager Mark Lacey said that gold as an asset class remained under-owned.

Central banks had injected $15-trillion of liquidity into global financial markets since 2008 and if investors started meaningfully allocating to gold again, Lacey said gold exchange-traded fund holdings had the potential to grow at significantly higher rates than seen in recent commodity cycles.

The all share closed 0.44% higher at 56‚999.80 points after reaching 57‚061.30 on the day. The blue-chip top 40 closed 0.48% higher at a record 50‚786.40 points. Banks rose 0.83%‚ industrials 0.51%‚ resources 0.46%, and platinum 0.42%.

The gold index lost 0.66%‚ general retailers 0.19%, and property 0.17%.

Among individual shares‚ Anglo American rose 1.73%, to R262.77‚ the best level so far in 2017.

Exxaro was up 2.37%, at R137.45‚ after earlier rising 7%‚ following this week’s announcement that it would sell more shares in US-listed Tronox.

Anheuser-Busch InBev closed 1.69% higher at R1‚663.65, Remgro rose 1.75%, to R217.45 and Naspers gained 1.34%, to a record R3‚136.50.

At 5.47pm‚ the Dow was up 0.23%‚ and the S&P 500 0.34%. European markets were mixed with the CAC 40 up 0.23% and the FTSE 100 0.47%‚ while the DAX 30 had lost 0.08%.

Brent crude rose 2.35%, to $57.06 a barrel. Gold fell 0.12%, to $1‚273.09/oz and platinum 0.03%, to $914/oz.

The rand was at R13.6400/$, from R13.5683.

The top 40 Alsi futures index gained 0.62%, to 51‚630 points.