JOHANNESBURG, Nov 23 (Reuters) - South Africa's rand jumped nearly two percent to a 3-session high against the dollar on Monday, propelled mainly by a stronger gold price, while the local bourse also raced ahead on a rally in metal prices.
The Johannesburg Top-40 index rose 1.98 percent to 24,819.59 points, while the broader All Share index advanced 1.84 percent to 27,423.47 points.
At 1552 GMT the rand traded 1.72 percent firmer at 7.4861 against the dollar from a previous close of 7.6175.
The currency touched a session high of 7.4680, its strongest level since Nov. 18 according to Reuters data.
"It's positive equity market sentiment across the board, all the markets are strongly higher this afternoon, so emerging markets as a whole are benefitting, the rand is just part of that," said Bidvest Bank chief currency dealer Ion de Vleeschauwer.
"Gold is higher and $1,200 an ounce is probably inevitable. As long as that continues, the rand will be strong. There's nothing really to weaken the currency," he added.
Platinum shares were the top performers on the local bourse, with the JSE platinum index rising 3.47 percent as the white metal touched a new 14-month high of above $1,470 an ounce.
"Commodities are strong especially the gold and the platinums. In general resources are up quite nicely," said Tubby Goodwin, a trader at Investec Securities.
"We have seen the world markets firmer and we've seen a firmer rand, gold prices are at record levels and the rest of the precious metals are following."
Miner Lonmin jumped 5.11 percent to 221 rand, while Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum climbed 4.40 percent to 738.48 rand and 2.97 percent to 174.50 rand, respectively. Anglo Gold rose 3.57 percent to 340.75 rand.
South African mass market lender African Bank (Abil) rose 2.76 percent to 30.16 rand. Abil forecast a steady year ahead with a decline in bad debts after posting an expected 11-percent fall in full-year profit.
Africa's biggest fixed-line operator Telkom missed out on the gains, shedding 1.14 percent to 39.15 rand after posting a 37.9 percent fall in first-half headline earnings per share.
Government bonds also weakened, and yields inversely ticked higher. The yield on the 2015 bond added 3 basis points to 8.385 percent and that for the 2036 bond was up 4 basis points at 8.82 percent.

(Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa and Phakamisa Ndzamela; Editing by Matthew Jones) (For more Africa cover visit: http://af.reuters.com -- To comment on this story email: SouthAfrica.Newsroom@reuters.com) Keywords: MARKETS SAFRICA/CLOSE (stella.mapenzauswa@thomsonreuters.com; +27 11 775 3161; Reuters Messaging: stella.mapenzauswa.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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