JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Share prices on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) closed higher on Monday, as the South Africa's rand remains firmer, its best since May 2015.
The rand reached an intraday best of R12.11 to the U.S. dollar clawing gains made at the weekend, following reports that President Jacob Zuma was on his way out.
Thus, the all share was up 0.27 percent at 61,078.26 points at close, while the blue-chip top 40 added 0.2 percent.
Banks rallied to near-record highs, 2.48 percent lifted by a stronger rand and declining government bond yields, following local political developments.
Gold miners was off due to a stronger rand, with AngloGold Ashanti, easing 3.04 percent to R129.71 and Gold Fields 3.15 percent to R50.5.
Swiss luxury goods company Richemont dropped 1.93 percent to R111.85.
Bidvest added 1.82 percent to R212, Imperial 3.11 percent to R261.91 and Barloworld 2.09 percent to R167.
FirstRand climbed 3.15 percent to R66.5, Barclays Africa 2.23 percent to R183, Sanlam dropped 0.43 percent to R87.29 and Santam added 4.01 percent to R281.07.
PSG advanced 0.2 percent to settle at R254.
Scandal-hit Steinhoff regained 7.75 percent to R8.2, after announcing earlier on Monday that it planned to raise about R7.2bn by selling 29.5-million PSG shares via an accelerated bookbuild.
Mr Price was up 2.26 percent to R257.95 and Woolies tumbled 1.26 percent to R26.4.
Vodacom was off 0.82 percent to R146.93 and rival MTN added 1.96 percent to R136.17, despite a relatively stronger rand.
Consumer goods group AVI was up 2.57 percent to R108.72 and Tiger Brands 1.15 percent to R457. Enditem
