Stocks pulled back in the final stretch on Monday, but remained well in the black at the close after a dismal start on Wall Street, traders said.

Platinum miners led the rally on the local bourse in what traders said was a recovery from deeply oversold positions, but gains were restricted by hefty losses in gold mining stocks as the yellow metal loses its safe haven status to equities and the stronger dollar.

Stocks traded in the in the black all day, building on gains in Asia this morning on hopes that US president-elect Barack Obama's stimulus plans will revive the US economy in the new year.

"The US's stimulus packages are at the forefront of everyone's mind at the moment, and there's also a bit of short covering. But it's probably going to take us a week or so to get into the swing of things," said Andrew Todd, a trader at BoE Private Clients.

The all share index ended 2.48 percent higher at 22 304.430 points, pulling back from the day's best level of 22 544.260. Resources rose 1.98 percent, platinum shares climbed 4.92 percent but gold shares slumped 5.20 percent.

Industrials surged 3.50 percent, financials were up 1.67 percent and banks strengthened 2.67 percent.

The rand was last bid at 9.34 to the dollar, from 9.36 when the JSE closed on Friday, while gold was last quoted at $851.20 a troy ounce from $874.05 at the JSE's last close.

Platinum was at $934.50/oz from $931 when the JSE closed on Friday.

In the US, stocks fell on Monday morning as investors looked ahead to the release of data likely to show another month of slumping auto sales.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was last down about 115 points, trading at 8919. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 11 points to 921, hurt by declines in all its sectors except energy, up about 0.7 percent. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 25, trading at 1607.

Among equity movers on the JSE, resource giant Anglo American was up 1.84 percent to 228 rand and BHP Billiton climbed 1.56 percent to 187.90 rand.

Synthetic fuels maker Sasol gained 7.84 percent to 315 rand.

Among gold miners, AngloGold Ashanti fell 5.33 percent to 244 rand, Gold Fields slipped 5.54 percent to 85.50 rand and Harmony dropped 4.96 percent to 96 rand.

World number one platinum miner Anglo Platinum surged 2.98 percent to 560 rand, Impala Platinum gained 6.18 percent to 150 rand and Northam Platinum soared 12.68 percent to 23.99 rand.

Elsewhere, brewer SABMiller was up 2.76 percent at 164.94 rand and Tiger Brands rose 2.08 percent to 145.99 rand.

Among banks, Standard Bank was 4.17 percent better at 84.90 rand, Nedbank improved 4.12 percent to 98.50 rand and Absa added one rand to 109.25 rand.

Telecoms firm MTN Group climbed 6.70 percent to 113 rand and Telkom was up 2.77 percent to 115 rand.

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