South African stocks hit a record high for the second day in a row on Wednesday, with mining shares leading the pack on the continent's biggest bourse. Metal prices cruised higher during the session with copper hitting a more than 3-week high, boosting mining shares such as African Rainbow Minerals. Shares in the diversified miner rose 3.8 percent to 215.96 rand, making it the top gainer on the bluechip JSE Top-40 index.
The Top-40 added 0.7 percent to a record closing high of 43,631.70. It earlier scaled a lifetime peak of 43,698.33. The broader All-share index notched up a record 48,473.99 before pulling back slightly to end 0.6 percent higher at 48,404.90. Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) also featured on the gainers' list, climbing for the second day after the strike-hit mining firm declared force majeure, temporarily relieving it of financial obligations to suppliers. "Amplats doesn't have to pay their costs immediately but they can still continue to collect revenue as they have been," said Lavan Gopaul, chief investment officer at Trademar Futures.
Mobile telecoms giant Vodacom increased by 2.07 percent to 132.05 rand after it denied speculation that talks to buy domestic fixed-line operator Neotel had fallen through. On the flipside, consumer foods firm Tiger Brands dropped 3.77 percent to 267.50 rand, while transport and logistics operator Imperial Holdings skidded 3.4 percent to 182.29 rand.
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