Not even the poor performance of the banking (-2.74%) and retail (-3.21%) indices could dampen the surging JSE Securities Exchange (+0.97%) yesterday.
Gerbrand Smit, analyst at The Efficient Group says that the main driver of the bourse was the resources (+4.32%) with gold (+6.54%) and platinum (+6.85%) surging higher. Harmony (+8.93%) and Gold Fields (+8.53%) accelerated down the runway kicking dust in the eyes of the Anglo family.
The head of the family Anglo American gained 3.81% with Anglo Platinum the model child jumping 5.93%, while Anglo Gold was the step child only recording a gain of 2.96%.
The continued dollar (-0.68%) strength kept commodity, gold (-1.18%) and platinum (-0.88%) prices under pressure. Oil reminded us yesterday that it is still an unpredictable factor and does not abide to conventional thinking by rising to $42.59/barrel.
US equity markets looked good yesterday as only the Nasdaq (-0.06%) posted a small loss, with the S&P 500 (+0.35%) slowly moving along. European markets did well with the DAX (+1.00%) gaining the most as broker upgrades from Merrill Lynch helped vehicle-related industries higher.
Currently the Asian markets are mixed, with the Nikkei 225 (+0.48%) running along while the Hang Seng has reversed 0.38%. We expect the market to keep a close eye on the rand as resources stocks could be in favour in this regard.
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