JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African stocks broke two days of losses on Monday, on better-than-expected earnings, while the rand recovered some of its footing against the dollar after last week's heavy sell-off. The JSE Top-40 index of blue chips gained 1.11 percent to 23,367.21 points, while the All-share index rose 0.96 percent to 26,041.96 points. "The market is trading positively from better-than-expected results (from mining shares)," Abri du Plessis, chief investment officer at Gryphon Asset Management, said. Gold and platinum stocks were among the biggest gainers on the bourse as profits for African-focused producers were lifted by gold prices. . AngloGold Ashanti rose 2.84 percent to 281 rand, Gold Fields was up 2.20 percent to 88.30 rand and Harmony Gold Mining Co. rose 0.71 percent to 72 rand after it swung to a profit in the quarter to December. Anglo Platinum forecast its markets would turn around in 2010, sending its shares up more than 6 percent earlier in the session, helping to lift the Johannesburg's resource heavy index. Shares in Anglo Platinum closed 6.54 percent up to 733 rand after the world's top producer of the precious metal announced a rights issue to raise 12.5 billion rand to pay off its debt. . At 1547 GMT the rand was at 7.7315 to the greenback, 0.5 percent firmer compared with Friday's close at 7.77/dollar. Traders however said the local currency remained overly fragile after plunging to 3-month lows on Friday, plagued by risk aversion as investors fretted about the fiscal health of some countries in the euro zone. "It's been a fairly mundane day today, we had a bit of profit-taking this morning from Friday night's move. Since then we've had a steady flow of demand from both local corporates and some chunky offshore demand as well," a trader in Johannesburg said. "That's really kept the rand on the backfoot for most of the day, but it's been a fairly quiet day, the market taking a little bit of a breather. There's quite a lot of data out this week, so I think the market is quite happy to tread water for the day." Government bonds also paused for breath after Friday's sharp rally, with the yield on the 2015 bond down just half a basis point at 8.37 percent while that for the 2036 dipped 1 basis point to 8.97 percent.