* Market to watch U.S. earnings season
* Top-40, All-share add 0.21 pct
JOHANNESBURG Oct 10 (Reuters) – South African shares turned
positive for the first time this week but Gold Fields
and other bullion mining firms took a beating from a recovery in
the local currency.
Absa, the South African bank majority owned by
Barclays, fell 2.8 percent to 134.60 rand. A black
investment group said it had sold a 3.4 percent stake in the
bank.
The Top-40 index gained 0.21 percent 32,008.14 and
the All-share went up by a similar margin to 36,147.62.
“Overall, quite cautious trade and a little bit of strength
coming back into the rand,” said Nick Kunze, a director at
Terrassen Capital Management in Johannesburg.
“Gold shares are under pressure because the rand was
strengthening.”
The rand has recovered a little over 3 percent
since hitting a near 3-1/2 year low on Monday, when it was by
investor concern over widening labour unrest.
Central bank governor Gill Marcus also warned on Wednesday
the economic outlook for Africa’s biggest economy was
deteriorating rapidly, with the ongoing strikes likely to lead
to job losses.
Continued…
