Gold miners bump up market as price jumps

THE JSE booked a record close for the fourth time this week on Friday, lifted by surging gold miners as the spot price hit two-month highs.

AngloGold Ashanti, Africa’s biggest bullion producer, roared 7% higher to R144.98, the secondbiggest gainer on the blue-chip index. Gold Fields closed 4.64% higher to R 64.50 and Harmony was 6.55% up at R41.50.

The rise in bullion stocks pushed the gold index up 6.15% to 1 413, its highest close in two months.

The Top 40 index climbed 1.4% to 38 624 while the All Share index added 1.25% to 43 042. Both were record closing levels. The market paused for breath and fell more than 1% as profits were taken on Thursday after record runs in the previous three sessions, but investors piled back in on Friday.

“We have seen some switching into resources,” said Andrew Bryson, a trader at Nedbank Private Wealth. “Prospects for global growth are improving, and there is some positive sentiment coming back into the resource sector.”

Gold — which has not had much good news lately — closed in on a two-month high of $1 368/oz hit earlier on Friday, leaving prices on course for their biggest weekly gain in a month, as weaker-thanforecast US data took some steam out of expectations for early Federal Reserve stimulus reduction.

The spot price hit its two-month peak on strong buying from China.

Platinum producers also got a boost from the swing to gold. Impala Platinum, the world’s second-largest producer of this metal, surged over 7.5% to R114.25, making it the biggest gainer on the Top 40. This was despite a profit warning it issued on Friday, saying its full-year earnings fell by about half, hit by poor performance at its Rustenburg mine and after it wrote down the value of some assets. Analysts welcomed the move. “It is the right time for platinum miners to start impairing assets; we have already seen it among gold producers,” said SBG Securities platinum analyst Justin Froneman in Johannesburg.

More than 130 million shares changed hands. Advancers outpaced decliners at 197 to 92, with 56 stocks unchanged.

European shares endured a choppy session on Friday with travel companies hit worst due to the turmoil in Egypt, while concerns that the US could soon start to scale back stimulus kept the broader market in check.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which fell 1% on Thursday in its biggest one-day drop in six weeks, was up 2.34 points at 1 230.13. It was flat on the week. Global equity markets have struggled for momentum over the last month.

Major European indexes have lagged US indexes. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 have risen 15%-17% since the start of 2013, while the FTSEurofirst 300 and Euro STOXX 50 have risen by just 8%. — Reuters