GENERAL BUSINESS FEED
Johannesburg, Feb 3 (I-Net Bridge) - South African near-dated futures ended flat on Friday, underperforming the main global markets which rallied on the positive US jobs report.
A local trader attributed the local activity to some position squaring among the players ahead of the weekend.
The local near-dated Alsi contract added 0.11% or 33 points to 30,845 points.
The rand was firmer at R7.55 against the US dollar, from R7.63 at the previous close, while gold was quoted at US$1,736.71 a troy ounce from US$1,756.65/oz before.
The total number of contracts that exchanged hands was 45,166 from 43,236 on Thursday.
Meanwhile, US stocks moved higher on Friday after a closely watched government payrolls report showed the economy added more jobs than expected and the unemployment rate edged lower in January.
The US Labor Department's January data showed nonfarm payrolls rose 243,000 last month, marking the biggest gain since last April. The jobless rate fell by two-tenths of a point to 8.3%, the lowest it is has been since February 2009. Both numbers beat expectations. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected a slowing to 125,000 jobs from December's 200,000. The unemployment rate was expected to hold steady at 8.5%.
"It's an unequivocally robust number," said David Joy, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial in Boston. "There's been a lot of skepticism over whether [recent stock gains] represented anything material. This reinforces that businesses are regaining confidence and increasing hiring."
European markets moved higher on the back of encouraging economic data. The eurozone composite purchasing manager's index confirmed private-sector activity expanded in January, with the index rising to 50.4 from 48.3 in December.
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