The JSE opened almost 1 percent firmer on Wednesday as gold surged to a new high and gold mining stocks moved higher.

At 9.15am the JSE all share index was 0.93 percent stronger, led by a 2.19 percent rise in gold miners, a 1.77 percent jump in resources and a 1.10 percent advance for platinum miners.

Banks were 0.53 percent higher, financials added 0.52 percent and industrials moved up 0.21 percent.

The rand was bid at 7.42 to the dollar, from 7.49 when the JSE closed on Tuesday. Gold was quoted at $1178.45 a troy ounce from $1164.32 an ounce at the JSE's last close, and platinum was at $1464.50 an ounce, from $1454 the bourse's previous close.

Dow Jones newswires reported that spot gold rallied sharply to a new record high of $1178.50 a troy ounce as liquidity-driven momentum for bullion shows no sign of letting up.

Gold's record run had no obvious trigger. The euro didn't gain much strength, and stayed below key technical resistance at $1.50.

"The gold market is trading on its own right now," said Jonathan Barratt, managing director at Commodity Broking Services in Sydney. "Whether this is the commencement of an exhaustive spike higher remains to be seen."

A local trader said the spike in the gold price was lifting gold miners, but apart from that there was little corporate news this morning.

Massmart issued a trading statement in which it adopted a cautious outlook, saying its business planning was extremely difficult because the speed with which the global economic crisis had fundamentally changed the environment, rendering references to the prior year "almost invalid".

For the 21 weeks ended November 22, Massmart said its total sales growth was 4.9 percent and comparable sales growth was -0.7 percent. Excluding African sales these growth figures were: total sales 6.2 percent and comparable sales 0.9 percent. To assist comparison, the similarly restated sales growths for week 14, the date of the previous Massmart sales update, would have been total sales 6.4 percent and comparable sales 1.8 percent.

"Given the critical Christmas trading period, it is difficult to forecast Massmart's earnings with any reasonable degree of certainty, but we expect earnings per share and headline earnings per share for the six months to December 2009, including and excluding any foreign currency translation effects, to be below the comparable prior period," it said.

Massmart's share price initially fell to a low of 84 rand, but has since recovered off its lows and was last quoted 45 cents weaker at 85.70 rand from a previous close of 86.15 rand.

The trader added that there is a host of US data due out later in the day and the JSE would likely tread water ahead of that.

US data due this afternoon includes October Durable Goods Orders, October Personal Spending and Income, November Consumer Sentiment and October New Home Sales.

Dow Jones newswires also reported that European bourses look set to tread higher once again after they were weighed down by losses in banks amid worries about capital levels Tuesday.

For Wednesday's opening, IG Markets is calling the FTSE up 28 at 5352, the DAX up 22 at 5791 and the CAC up 13 at 3798.

However, trade is likely to be subdued as the US winds down for Thanksgiving.

US stocks fell on Tuesday as concern about a downward revision in third-quarter consumer spending estimates and the fallout from possible bank restrictions in China prompted investors to move away from riskier areas of the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 17.24 points on Tuesday.

Asian share markets are mixed, with traders keeping a cautious watch on Chinese markets after Monday's sharp drop on a call by China's main banking regulator for China's lenders to strictly comply with capital requirements or face sanctions. Japan's Nikkei 225 was last up 0.43 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was 0.49 percent firmer.

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