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Johannesburg - The JSE was softer in Tuesday's session, as it took a break from its recent rally that saw the All-Share index hit record highs over the past few trading sessions.
Most of the price action was driven by rand hedge stocks, which retreated due to a slightly firmer rand.
The rand firmed during trade on Tuesday mainly due to a weaker US dollar, but also because of the release of better than expected South African manufacturing production data.
SA's year-on-year manufacturing production increase came in at 1.5%, which was better than the expectations of analysts.
The rand peaked to an intra-day high of R13.62 to the US dollar. Just after the JSE closed it was trading at R13.63 to the greenback.
Retailers Mr Price [JSE:MRP] and Woolworths [JSE:WHL] were among notable movers on Tuesday, gaining 3.26% and 1.87% respectively.
Stadio [JSE:SDO], meanwhile, which starts trading ex-rights on Wednesday had another stellar day, gaining 10.42%.
Dis-Chem [JSE:DCP] stock also increased in price on the back of a trading statement which indicated that the group is expecting earnings per share and headline earnings per share to be up by between 34.8% and 39.5% for the 6 months ended August 2017. The stock closed the day up 7.59% at R31.20 per share.
Famous Brands [JSE:FBR] came under significant pressure following the release of a trading statement for the 6 months ended 31 August after the JSE closed on Monday.
The statement indicated a significant loss from its UK subsidiary Gourmet Burger King, as well as increasingly difficult trading conditions in all the regions that it operates in.
Famous Brands indicated it is expecting headline earnings per share to be down by between 54% and 63%, while basic earnings per share are expected to decrease by between 52% and 61%. Net finance costs for the group also increased for the period reported. Its stock eventually closed down 10.74% at R105.50 per share on Tuesday.
All-Share up
The JSE All-Share index eventually closed up 0.17% after having been under pressure for the better portion of Tuesday's session, while the JSE Top-40 index gained 0.08%.
The Industrials index firmed by 0.29%, while the Financials index climbed 0.78%. The Resources index came under pressure to eventually close the day down 0.87%.
Gold gained on the back of the weakening US Dollar. The precious metal managed to record an intra-day high of $1294.31 per ounce which saw Gold Fields [JSE:GFI] gaining 0.33%.
However AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] and Harmony Gold [JSE:HAR] traded under pressure to close the day down 1.74% and 0.16% respectively.
Gold was trading at $1293.31/Oz just after the local market closed.
Palladium and Platinum both traded firmer on Tuesday. But JSE-listed miners failed to gain much momentum on the back of the increase. Impala Platinum [JSE:IMP] closed down 0.71%, while Sibanye Stillwater [JSE:SGL] ended the day 0.68% weaker.
Platinum was trading at $914.74/Oz just after the JSE closed, while Palladium was trading at $930.78/Oz.
Brent Crude inched higher on Tuesday's session, to peak at $56.82 per barrel.
However Sasol [JSE:SOL] failed to gain any momentum from oil's rose, losing 1.08%.
Brent Crude was trading at $56.68 per barrel just after the JSE closed.
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