US stock indexes rise as investors search for bargains

U.S. stocks rose, reversing earlier losses in volatile trading, on Monday as investors viewed last week's sell-off as providing buying opportunities.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 34.76 points, or 0.29 percent, at 12,148.86. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index

was up 0.87 points, or 0.06 percent, at 1,388.04. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 2.34 points, or 0.10 percent, at 2,370.34

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Gold plummets as investors flee

Gold tumbled to its lowest in six weeks on Monday as the carnage on equity markets infected sentiment for the precious metal and investors sold to cover their losses, analysts said.

Anglogold Ashanti lost 4.2% and Australia's Newcrest Mining was down 1.5%.
Spot gold was down at $636.20/636.90 an ounce by 11:30 GMT, up from $635.70, the lowest since January 23, but down from $643.10/643.80 late in New York on Friday.

Gold has lost around 7% since hitting a nine-month high of $689 an ounce on February 26.

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Oil drops below $60/barrel

Oil prices dropped sharply on Monday, losing nearly $2 a barrel, in a market driven by stock market declines and concerns about the world economy.

"There's a general sort of recoil from risk in the market," said Tobin Gorey, a commodity strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.

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Rand seen hitting 5-month lows

The rand has taken a pounding from a global markets sell-off over the past week and could slip further as investors continue to flee risky assets.

The unit would likely soften towards R7.80/US$ this week - levels not seen since a plunge in early October last year - with few positives to warrant a rebound, analysts said.

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Top-40 shaves off billions

South Africa's blue-chip Top-40 stock index fell more than 2% on Monday, dragged lower by mining stocks after a sharp sell-off in Asia.

The Top-40 lost 607 points, or 2.64% to 22 382 points by 09:29 after earlier falling as much as 2.67% to 22 377.41 - its lowest level since January 12.

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Rand plunges below R7.50/$

South Africa's rand shed over 1.60% to four-month lows against the dollar in early Monday trade and was seen giving up more value during the week, weighed down by turmoil in equity markets.

The rand was at R7.5250 against the greenback at 09:00, its weakest level since October 31 last year, down from a close of R7.4085 in New York on Friday.

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Gates dumps Microsoft stock

Bill Gates, chairperson and co-founder of Microsoft, sold 4 million shares of the software giant's stock over the last three days of February, bringing his total sales for the month to 20 million, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Gates still owns 917.5 million shares of Microsoft after the share sales, according to the filings. This represents about 9.2% of total diluted shares outstanding as of December 31.

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