20100104

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's rand strengthened against the dollar on Monday, largely tracking trading partner currency the euro, while stocks ended their first trading session in 2010 stronger, led by platinum miners.

The Johannesburg Top-40 index rose 1.01 percent to 25,250.23 points, while the broader All-Share index gained 0.83 percent to 27,895.19 points.

By 1525 GMT the rand was 0.93 percent firmer at 7.3215 to the greenback compared with its previous close at 7.39.

"The rand has pretty much tracked the movement in the euro and other commodity currencies, and with the euro, gold and the Aussie being up, dollar/rand has come off about 12 cents since this morning. It's been pretty much dollar weakness across the board," a trader in Johannesburg said.

"There's still very thin liquidity with some of the players still being away on holiday," the trader said, adding that the market should be back on full steam from next week.

The rand ended 2009 nearly 30 percent firmer against the dollar, with both the government and central bank saying on several occasions that the currency's rally had left it over-valued and could hamper the economy's recovery after a recession.

On the local bourse, Impala Platinum climbed 4.19 percent to 211.50 rand, heading towards a five month high, while rival Lonmin jumped 3.53 percent to 240.20 rand, near a two month high. Anglo Platinum added 1.58 percent to 805 rand.

"Platinums were up quite nicely and the heavyweight miners like Anglo American and BHP Billiton are also up. The commodity prices have shot up quite nicely," said Michael Carlsson, a portfolio manager at Consilium Capital.

The JSE Platinum index rose 3.11 percent as the metal hit a 16-month high, thanks to the dollar's weakness.