A STRONG rally in mining shares pushed the Jo’burg Stock Exchange further into positive territory at midday on Tuesday.
At 12:39pm the JSE all share had shot up 1,53%, with the blue-chip top 40 rising 1,69%.
Gold miners led the upward charge, surging 3,72%, followed closely by a 3,61% jump in platinum stocks.
Although gains on the domestic exchange were broad based, with all the major indices in positive territory, investors piled into the mining counters following better than expected trade data from China.
Official data recorded China’s trade surplus swelling to $49,61bn in December, surpassing the forecasted $49,4bn.
Afrifocus Portfolio Manager Ferdi Heyneke said the positive Chinese figures signalled that the economy was picking up following concern of a slowdown.
China was the world’s largest consumer of commodities, so data that indicated its economy was strengthening was good news for local mining companies, which produced raw materials such as iron ore, copper, gold and platinum, Heyneke said.
Among individual stocks on the JSE, SA’s largest gold producer, AngloGold Ashanti, leapt 5.80% to R126,31.
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Platinum counters saw the world’s largest miner of the metal, Anglo American Platinum soar 5,07% to R363,05 to lead gains in the sector at midday.
Diversified miner Glencore dropped 2,38% to R47,54, while Anglo American added 1,25% to R200,05.
Sasol slipped 0.3% to R381,69 as Brent crude continued to hover around six-year lows, of about $46 a barrel.
The latest decline in oil prices comes after global investment house Goldman Sachs said it expected Brent crude to fall as low as $42 a barrel in the next three months as the supply glut remained unchanged.
– BD Live
