Gold and retail companies boost South African shares

* Top-40 and All-share indices add 1 pct

* Weak rand, spot prices boost gold producers

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 13 (Reuters) - South African shares rose on Monday on hopes for healthy banking sector earnings and a pick up in retail numbers while a weak local currency buoyed gold mining stocks such as AngloGold Ashanti ANGJ.J .

Weak U.S. employment data released on Friday gave emerging market shares a new lease on life as investors bet the Federal Reserve would stay its hand on the stimulus programme that has encouraged stock punters to consider less developed markets.

U.S. employers hired the fewest workers in nearly three years in December, the data showed.

"The JSE is all smiles after last week's very dour jobs number. Low jobs number is bad news, but the market looks at it and says, for us it is good news," said Lavan Gopaul, chief investment officer at Trademar Futures.

"As a result, they have been pumping cash into our market in a big way."

Johannesburg's Top-40 index .JTOPI added 1.07 percent to 41,269.29, while the All-share .JALSH gained 1.06 percent to 46,030.25.

AngloGold Ashanti was the highest blue chip gainer after adding 5.5 percent to 130.15 rand. Gold shares were partly boosted by a 0.87 percent fall by the rand currency ZAR=D3 as their earnings are priced in dollars.

Spot gold XAU= , which rallied after the jobs data last week but steadied on Monday, also lent some muscle to Johannesburg-listed bullion producers.

Investors were also lapping up retailers in anticipation of good November retail sales data to be released on Wednesday.

Clothing retailer Truworths TRUJ.J rose more than 4 percent to 78.60 rand, while high-end food and fashion outlet Woolworths WHLJ.J was up more than 2 percent to 74.59 rand.

Fourth-quarter earnings reports by top U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase JPM.N Wells Fargo WFC.N and Goldman Sachs

GS.N later this week are already helping local financial stocks. South Africa's biggest bank, Standard Bank , was up more than 2 percent to 130.25 rand.

Trade was thin with some 125 million shares sold, preliminary data showed. But advancers were clearly in the lead, with 229 companies gaining compared with 87 declining.

(Reporting by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura; Editing by Ed Stoddard)

((helen.nyambura@thomsonreuters.com)(+27 11 775 3034)(Reuters Messaging: helen.nyambura.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: SAFRICA MARKETS/