* Blue chips gain 0.39 pct
* All-Share index up 0.43 pct
JOHANNESBURG, April 30 (Reuters) – South African stocks rose
slightly on Monday in the last trading session of the month,
buoyed by financial and resource stocks such as diversified
miner African Rainbow Minerals.
Bullion miners Gold Fields and AngloGold Ashanti
pulled in the opposite direction as spot prices of the
precious metal slid towards $1,650 an ounce following four
straight days of gains.
“Asia was stronger this morning and commodities followed
suit,” said Bernhard Grobler, the head of stock broking at
Investec.
The benchmark blue-chip Top-40 index rose 0.39 per
cent to 30,364.59 while the All-Share index added 0.43
per cent to 34,399.04.
At the top of the pack were financial service providers.
Absa and Standard Bank added 2.6 per cent to
160 rand and 1.75 per cent to 114.75 rand respectively.
African Rainbow closed 1.7 percent stronger at 181 rand.
Industrial group Barloworld, which said the sale of its
U.S. materials handling unit would leave it with about $60
million of net cash proceeds, gained nearly 2.5 percent to 98.00
rand.
Spot gold was down to $1,659.40 an ounce at 1533 GMT,
from a high of $1,655.60 earlier.
Continued…
