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Johannesburg - Local equities closed firmer on Monday during a relatively flat trading session on the JSE.
Top movers included Tongaat Hulett [JSE:TON], which gained 2.70%, and Sappi [JSE:SAP] which gained 2.47%.
Banking stocks firmed despite a weaker rand, which saw Barclays Africa [JSE:BGA], Nedbank [JSE:NED] and First Rand [JSE:FSR] all firming by 0.97%, 0.23% and 0.34% respectively.
Subdued metal commodity prices did not deter gains among some of JSE-listed miners such as Anglo American PLC [JSE:AGL], AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] and BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL] which ended the day 2.34%, 1.55% and 0.61% up respectively.
Pioneer Foods [JSE:PFG] came under pressure following the release of a trading statement which indicated it is expecting a decrease in both its headline and attributable earnings per share. The stock shed 2.92% to close at R114.55 per share.
Other major losers on the day included Exxaro Resources [JSE:EXX] which lost 3.36%, and the Rhodes Food Group [JSE:RFG] which shed 4.11%.
RCL Foods [JSE:RCL] also came under pressure as it shed 4.01%.
Gold miners Gold Fields [JSE:GFI] and Harmony Gold [JSE:HAR] traded weaker on the back of softer Gold prices, to eventually close the day down 0.81% and 1.26% respectively.
The JSE All-Share index managed to eventually close up 0.09%, whilst the Top-40 index gained 0.13%.
The Industrials index shed 0.07%, the Resources index gained 0.79% and Financials index ended up 0.06%.
Dollar
The US dollar strengthened on Monday against a basket of major currencies as indicated by the US dollar index, which reached an intra-day high 94.002 index points. This resulted, in part, in the rand weakening to an intra-day low of R13.76 against the greenback.
The dollar retraced slightly towards the close of the JSE, and as a result the rand gained marginally to trade at R13.72/$ when the JSE closed.
Gold traded weaker on Monday due, in part, to the stronger dollar. The precious metal weakened to an intra-day low of $1 272.61 per ounce, before rebounding slightly to trade at $1 274.11/Oz when the local market closed.
Other metals such as Palladium and Platinum also traded weaker which saw them reach intra-day lows of $961.71/Oz and $913.94/Oz respectively.
JSE-listed miners Impala Platinum [JSE:IMP] and Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS] closed the day down, losing 1.34% and 0.14% respectively.
Brent Crude, meanwhile, fell below $58 per barrel to trade at $57.62 when the JSE closed.
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