Rumours of Chinese investors buying Anglo shares lift bourse
September 22, 2006
By From Reuters
Johannesburg - Anglo American pushed shares higher yesterday amid rumours of buying interest from Chinese investors, while a weaker rand and futures close-out also ignited the bourse.
The Top40 index gained 1.31 percent to 20 007.54 points, while the all share index added 1.2 percent to 21 886.40 points.
"The main themes today were the futures close-out, which saw volumes hit R19 billion, and the rand falling," said Ryan Wibberley, a trader at Investec Securities.
"Anglo was pushed by buying ahead of the close-out, a weak rand and the rumours of Chinese buying shares."
Speculation was rife that a major Chinese industrial group had been around the market attempting to buy 3 percent of Anglo American or roughly 40 million shares.
Anglo American climbed 3.04 percent to R308.61, while BHP Billiton gained 0.75 percent to R129.16.
Investec, which has a rand hedge and is listed in London, starred on the day with a 4.44 percent jump to R72.38. Its 1.5 percent gain on the London bourse was magnified by the weaker rand, a trader said.
Anglo Platinum rose 3.95 percent to R763 as most mining producers gained on the futures close-out and weaker rand.
Santam tumbled after Sanlam said talks over taking full control of Santam had been called off. Santam shares fell 12.5 percent - its biggest one-day percentage fall since 1998 - after the announcement.
Santam shares closed 11.87 percent to R74.03. Shares in Sanlam were 2.16 percent higher at R16.55.
"Clearly, they couldn't reach agreement on a price. Sanlam was not going to overpay and it seems certain shareholders in Santam were quite aggressive on the pricing of their shares," said a Cape Town-based insurance sector analyst.
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