Manufacturing buoys stocks, metals, pushes rand

The Standard & Poor's GSCI index of raw materials advanced to a one-month high as the prices of metals including copper, platinum and gold rose. South Africa's benchmark stock index advanced the most in more than a month, led by raw materials producers including Anglo American Plc and BHP Billiton Ltd.

"The rind's strength has largely got to do with slightly more buoyant equity markets," David Gracey, who heads currency and derivatives trading at Investec Bank Ltd., told Bloomberg. Amid signs of recovering global growth, "the potential for a rand recovery should not be underestimated and the local unit has started the year in this more bullish tone," George Glynos, an economist at Johannesburg-based ETM Analytics, said.

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