Money SA economy
South African stocks ended Monday in the black, pushed higher by resources amid firm metal prices, which tracked copper rising to an 11 month high. It follows the major earthquake in copper rich Chile.
A local equities trader also noted buyers in the industrials and financials sectors in the afternoon, which negated the impact of a firmer rand on the local bourse.
By 5pm the JSE all share index was up 0.98%, with resources 0.56% better, but the gold mining index fell away in the afternoon, down 0.72% and platinum miners lost 0.13%.
Banks collected 1.71%, financials added 0.73% and industrials advanced 1.53%.
Gold was quoted at $1 115.97/oz from $1 117.60/oz at the JSE's last close. Platinum reached $1 549/oz, from $1 534.50/oz at the bourse's previous close.
A local equities dealer said: "The news today has been the earthquake disaster in Chile, which pushed copper prices to an 11 month high and fed resources.
"A stronger rand however, capped major gains and we did see a pullback earlier but, we then saw buying into industrials and financials stocks this afternoon, which kept the local bourse up.
"This whole Greece debacle is still floating around, and we are just waiting for confirmation either way of whether we are likely to see a bailout," he said.
Dow Jones Newswires reported the US stock market opened higher on its first trading session of March, buoyed by a weekend crop of mergers and acquisitions and a bump in January consumer spending.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 46 points, or 0.4%, at 10371 in early trading.
