Johannesburg - A rally in platinum stocks helped the local market finish in positive terrain yesterday, but a tentative rand kept the lid on further gains in the overall market.
Platinum stocks were the star performers. The price of palladium, a by-product of platinum mining, climbed as much as 3.5 percent after jumping 3.2 percent on Monday. Platinum has gained 8.8 percent this month.
"The price of platinum is up $55 since last week and the weaker rand is helping," said Greg Potter, a trader at Nedcor Securities.
Gains were led by top producer Impala Platinum, which hurdled 4.7 percent to R427. Rival Anglo American Platinum climbed 2.9 percent to R251.01.
The broad all share index closed 0.9 percent higher at 7885.39 points, underpinned by gains in gold stocks, which gained nearly 1 percent, building on Monday's gains of over 4 percent.
Gainers outpaced decliners 124:90, with 100 counters unchanged.
The benchmark Top40 index advanced 1 percent to 7287.73 points, its biggest two-day rise since March 14.
At least 67 stocks rose, 38 fell and 57 were unchanged.
Black-led miner ARMgold, which recently announced plans to merge with Harmony Gold, surged 6.3 percent to R67.
Harmony added 1.5 percent to R90.55 and bigger rival Gold Fields gained 1.7 percent to R79.50.
Investors were watching which way the rand would go, but in the meantime, intrasession weakness in the currency lent some support to heavyweight stocks such as Anglo American, which draw the bulk of earnings in hard currency.
Anglo was up 1 percent to R109 and luxury goods firm Richemont rose 1.3 percent to R11.55.
Gold Fields climbed 1.7 percent to R79.50. Gold Fields was the only South African gold producer to beat analysts' earnings forecasts for the first quarter, said Potter.
MTN Group rose after Johnnic Holdings unveiled terms on Monday night for an eagerly awaited unbundling of its stake in the cellular operator.
MTN was up 2.3 percent at R13.50 and Johnnic climbed 2 percent to R50.50.
Life insurer Liberty Group dropped 2.7 percent to R47.65 after saying first-half and full-year profit might slump because of falling stock markets and the strengthening rand.
Omnia Holdings, the fertiliser and chemicals maker, gained 1.6 percent to R18.75 after it said it was in talks that might affect its shares.
It gave no details in its statement to the stock exchange.