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JSE reaches new record high as sentiment... Bond market ends strongly in thin trad... Trade talks enter critical phas...
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JSE reaches new record high as sentiment on SA market soars
Sapa-INet-Bridge
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange rose more than 2.63% on Friday to reach another alltime high of 8 663.6 points before retracing slightly.
The market was helped to its new high by the all-gold and financial indices which gained more than 3% together.
All South African markets had a positive session, ending much higher on positive sentiment.
By 4pm, the all-share index had gained 2.62%, the industrial index was 2.35% higher, the resources index had jumped 2.71%, the financial index soared 3.06% and the all-gold index was 3.97% stronger.
The JSE reached its all-time high as the market saw more than R2.5-billion being traded. It is the first time in the JSE's 112 years in existence that the market has reached the 8 600 points level.
"There has been massive volume today and I think we will still see more upside because of the Templeton comment on Thursday. I think the trend will continue on Monday - R2.5billion traded today is too much volume to stop in one day," an equities dealer said.
Templeton Emerging Market Funds' president Mark Mobius said he was recommending South Africa as the top emerging market for 2000.
"From foreign players' perception, the Templeton comment is a good one and that could be one of the main factors behind most foreign players buying stock like Anglos and De Beers today," another dealer said.
"Our market also did not have any negative factors today - that is why lot of guys saw value in our market," she said.
Dealers said financials and industrial stocks were the flavour of the day, since most investors stayed away form the IT sector because of Nasdaq's losses this week.
"Since Nasdaq was down on Thursday, there has been lot of nervousness in the IT sector. Most guys decided instead to buy industrial and financial stocks," a dealer said.
The IT index was lagging behind on Friday, gaining 0.93% on the day.
The Nasdaq composite index was down 150.41, or 3.8%, to 3727.13 on Thursday.
The tech-laden Nasdaq is now down about 10% from its levels on Monday as investors continue to take profits following a record setting run in the last 2 months of 1999.
"We have also seen a slight recovery on most global markets," a dealer said.
Asian markets recovered on Friday with the Tokyo Nikkei 225 index finishing up 25.14 points at 18 193.41.
Other South African markets also recorded good gains Friday, with the rand gaining 205 cents to 6.0480 rand per dollar from 6.0685 on Thursday.
The key government bond - the R150 - gained 24 basis points on the day to last trade at a yield of 13.095% from 13.340% on Thursday.
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