Recasts to focus on impact of gold price rally on stocks
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Miners listed on South Africa's main stock exchange rose strongly on Wednesday, buoyed by the global gold price's surge above $4,000 an ounce for the first time.
Gold Fields GFIJ.J and AngloGold Ashanti ANGJ.J closed up more than 3% on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, while Harmony Gold HARJ.J ended more than 2% higher.
Gold, traditionally seen as a store of value during times of instability, has hit record highs because of economic uncertainty, as well as expectations of U.S. interest rate cuts.
"The safe-haven status of gold has led to its rally on concerns over the impact of tariffs on U.S. growth and more recently the U.S. shutdown, along with heightened geopolitical tensions," Annabel Bishop, chief economist at Investec, told Reuters.
Spot gold XAU= was up about 1.5% at about $4,045 per ounce at 1510 GMT, taking this year's gains to 54%.
It is one of the strongest-performing assets of 2025, outpacing advances in global equity markets and bitcoin, while the U.S. dollar and crude oil are down for the year.
Gold's momentum has spread to other precious metals, like platinum XPT= and palladium XPD=, boosting the shares of Johannesburg-listed companies that produce those metals, including Sibanye Stillwater SSWJ.J, which gained 5% on Wednesday.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange's Top-40 index .JTOPI closed up 1.5%.
South Africa's rand ZAR=D3 also benefited from the precious metals rally, advancing 0.4% against the dollar, as did the benchmark 2035 government bond ZAR2035=, whose yield fell 9 basis points to 9.09%.
(Reporting by Anathi Madubela and Sfundo Parakozov; Editing by Alexander Winning and Jane Merriman)
((Anathi.Madubela@thomsonreuters.com))