Bourse climbs, boosted by gold shares

STOCKS gained yesterday, led by gold shares as a weaker rand boosted the price of bullion in local currency terms.

The benchmark Top40 index rose 0.53 percent to 43 482.54 points, while the all share gained 0.45 percent to 48 322.68 points.

Gold Fields surged 10.66 percent to R54.60, while Harmony Gold climbed 4.82 percent to close at R23.49.

Anglo American rose after a report that it planned to sell a mine in Brazil for $1 billion (R16.3bn). It jumped 6.39 percent to R58.75.

Glencore climbed 2.21 percent to R18.99. The cost of insuring Glen- core’s debt against default rose to a more than six-year high as the price of raw materials continued to tumble.

The Foschini Group shares rose after the fashion retailer said trading over the Christmas period had been better than the company expected. Revenue gained 14 percent in the four weeks to December 26, Cape Townbased company said in a statement yesterday. The stock climbed as much as 4.3 percent to R116.95 but closed 0.69 percent higher at R112.88.

Meanwhile, emerging market stocks retreated to the lowest in more than six years as concern that China’s growth outlook is worsening and a commodity slump drove investors out of riskier assets.