Platinum miners lead JSE higher

Platinum miners led gains on the JSE on Wednesday, with the index now having erased all of its 2020 losses.

At the time, the gold price broke above the psychologically important $1,800/oz as a resurgence in Covid-19 cases continued to drive skittish markets.

Platinum miners hit a multiyear trough on March 19, when it dawned on the world just how big an effect the Covid-19 pandemic would have on global economies.

Since then, however, the index has risen steadily on safe-haven demand as well as a ramping up of economic activity.

As the world battles with uncertainty about the pandemic, bulls have rushed into gold, pushing the spot price above the psychologically important $1,800/oz, its highest level since 2011. “The gold price is striving towards a new all-time high, while [other] commodity prices are in the process of recovering from their collapse in March, as optimism, if patchy, continues to build on the global recovery,” said Investec chief economist Annabel Bishop.

Bishop said that the gold price was well up from a year ago, with some of the gains coming from dollar weakness and risk aversion.

The JSE all share ended on Wednesday, rising 1.13% to 55,870.69 points while the top 40 rose 1.25%. Platinum miners leapt 5.82%, banks 4.21% and gold miners 3.49%.

Impala led gains in the platinum sector, leaping 9.56% to R136.57, with Sibanye-Stillwater and Northam both up 5.25% at R41.28 and R130, respectively. Anglo American Platinum tacked on 2.86% at R1,367.98 and Royal

Bafokeng 0.95% at R37. Gold strengthened 0.92% to $1,810.93/oz and platinum 1.65% to $850.62/oz. Brent crude was up 0.14% at $43.08 a barrel. Gold has gained about 19% so far in 2020, while platinum is down about 12%.

The JSE was boosted by encouraging comments from US Federal Reserve vice-chair Richard Clarida, who told CNN on Tuesday that the central bank still had more room to support the world’s largest economy as the number of new coronavirus infections continued to rise.

“The US Federal Reserve has ready repeatedly to act, ”reiterated said Oanda that senior it market stands analyst Craig Erlam.

“Loretta Mester [president and CEO] added her voice to those warning of a levelling off in the economic rebound as case numbers rise.”