South African stocks rallied to a fresh intraday record on Wednesday, paced by miners on M&A talk surrounding BHP Billiton, while a robust start on Wall Street provided additional buying support.

The JSE's broader all share index ended up 1.21 percent at 32 387.01. It earlier set a new record high of 32 476.76. Resources gained 2 percent, while the gold and platinum mining indices were up 0.17 percent and 1.44 percent respectively.

Banks inched up 0.05 percent, financials edged up 0.04 percent and industrials strengthened 0.55 percent.

The rand was bid at 7.63 to the dollar from 7.57 when the JSE closed on Tuesday, while gold was quoted at $867.65 a troy ounce from $867.15 at the JSE's last close.

"BHP Billiton is the big one today on the back of rumours that that China is trying to increase its stake in the company. That has buoyed the whole sector," a Johannesburg-based trader said, adding that a healthy start in New York, following tamed inflation data, added to the bullish sentiment.

Speculation is circulating in global markets that state-owned Chinese company Chinalco is considering raising its stake in BHP Billiton, which is itself still rumoured to be lining up cash to sweeten its takeover offer for Rio Tinto.

BHP is offering 3.4 of its own shares for each Rio Tinto share, which values Rio at around US$175-billion.

Shares in BHP Billiton rallied nearly five percent during the session setting a record high of 315.49 rand, but pulled back slightly to close 4.49 percent at 314.50 rand.

Moving in sympathy, rival Anglo American was up 2.22 percent to 506.49 rand.

Pressured by easing gold price as the dollar strengthens, AngloGold Ashanti was up 130 cents to 296.80 but Gold Fields was off 10 cents at 104.21 rand.

Platinum producer Anglo Platinum climbed 4.88 percent to 1311 rand but Impala Platinum was down 100 cents at 331 rand.

Elsewhere, banks were mixed following Tuesday's hawkish comments by the Reserve Bank governor Tinto Mboweni.

Standard Bank was 50 cents weaker at 87.40 rand, Absa was down 50 cents at 92.50 rand, while Nedbank added 1.59 percent to 111.75 rand and FirstRand inched up 15 cents to 15.70 rand.

"Banks are very cheap at the moment. They are at levels last seen in 2002 and the share prices have already reflected a 50 basis point rate hike in June," one trader said.

Financial services group Liberty Group was down 1.83 percent to 70.22 rand. It said earlier that despite tough trading conditions, its return on embedded value for the first three months of 2008 remained in line with market guidance of 14.5 percent to 15.5 percent.

Meanwhile, investors digested a raft of corporate earnings released this morning.

Steel maker ArcelorMittal SA dipped 100 cents to 237 rand. It earlier reported that headline earnings per share of 449 cents for the quarter ended March from 343 cents in the March 2007 quarter and 344 cents for the December 2007 quarter.

Grocer and liquor retailer Spar was up 1.51 percent to 57.05 rand. It earlier reported diluted headline earnings per share of 192.2 cents for the six months ended March 2008 from 149.6 cents s year ago.

IT group Datatec rallied 4.46 percent to 29.25 rand after reporting a 21 percent rise in annual underlying earnings per share to 47.3 US cents.

Rival Dimension Data (DDT, Didata) climbed 5.17 percent 7.93 rand after reporting that interim diluted earnings rose to 3.4 US cents from 2.0 US cents a year ago.

Electronics firm Reunert added 10 cents to 55.75 rand. It earlier reported diluted headline earnings per share of 294 cents for the six months ended March 2008 after a 64.1 cents per share loss a year ago.

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