JOHANNESBURG Jan 12 (Reuters) – South African banks
such as fourth-largest lender Nedbank followed their
European counterparts to close higher after a successful Spanish
bond auction generated market optimism and buoyed stocks on
Thursday.
Spain raised 10 billion euros earlier on Thursday, twice as
much as planned at lower yields. Italy also fared well, paying
less than half what it did a month ago to sell one-year bills.
“A good bond auction like that is the main reason for our
market picking up initially,” said Byron Lotter, a portfolio
manager at Vestact Asset Management.
Johannesburg’s Top-40 index gained as much as 0.94
percent but retraced its steps to close 0.54 percent higher at
29,434.13, after U.S. jobless claims came in higher than
expected.
The All-share index added 0.55 percent to
33,008.52.
The JSE’s banking index gained over 1.3 percent
after Nedbank rose 2.4 percent to 151.10 rand.
Nedbank shares shrugged off news that bigger rival Absa
was dragging it to court over $95 million in losses it
incurred in single stock futures trades.
Absa added 1.8 percent, while fellow competitor First Rand
closed nearly 2 percent stronger.
Construction and mining equipment leasing company Eqstra
surged over 4 percent to 7.71 rand after announcing
that talks to dispose its mining unit were progressing well.
Clothes and household merchandise retailer Mr Price Group
touched a record high of 86.46 rand after booking a 16
percent rise in third-quarter sales. The stock closed 2.45
percent stronger at 86.30 rand.
Preliminary exchange data showed 167 million shares had been
traded, but the figure is likely to rise. Another 209.3 shares
were sold on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura)
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