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Johannesburg - The JSE closed firmer on Friday as retail and financial stocks inched higher on the back of a firmer rand.
The rand firmed, inspired by better-than-expected trade balance numbers. South Africa’s trade balance surplus fell to R5.9bn which but beat the estimate of R2.1bn.
The rand strengthened to intra-day highs of R13.43 against the US dollar, which saw local retailers and financials trading firmer.
Mr Price [JSE:MRP] and Sanlam [JSE:SLM] were among the top gainers on the blue chip index, gaining 2.84% and 1.79% respectively.
Zeder Investments also had a good day despite the release of a trading statement which indicated that it was expecting a decrease in both headline earnings per share and attributable earnings per share.
Its share price jumped 4.84% to close the day at R19.00 per share.
Naspers [JSE:NPN] and Shoprite [JSE:SHP] also pushed the blue chip index higher as they closed the day up 1.92% and 1.61%.
Tradehold [JSE:TDH] and Telkom [JSE:TKG] had a stellar day, closing the day up 9.20% and 3.84% respectively.
Taste Holdings [JSE:TAS] came under pressure after the release of a relatively weak trading statement. The statement indicated that it was expecting more losses for the reported period.
Its loss per share is expected to increase by between 69.6% and 80.4%, and its headline loss per share by between 72.2% and 82.2%. Although the share came under pressure, it managed to close the day unchanged after having been down more than 13% at one stage.
All-Share up
The JSE All-Share index eventually closed up 1.06%, while the blue chip Top-40 index climbed 1.09%.
All the major indices halted their downtrends, as they closed firmer today. The Industrials index firmed by 1.32% and the Resources index rose 0.94%.
The Financials index, meanwhile, benefitted from the weaker rand to close the day 0.63% firmer.
Metal commodity prices remained largely subdued with gold yet again failing to gain any significant upside momentum. The precious metal showed signs of strength earlier in the day but eventually lost momentum as the US dollar started to firm towards near the end of trading.
Gold was recorded at $1 285.12 per ounce just after the JSE closed.
Despite the precious metal failing to pick a clear direction Gold Fields [JSE:GFI] and [JSE:ANG] closed 2.11% and 1.43% firmer respectively.
Palladium looks to still be in a bullish trend, and it is now priced higher than Platinum. When the JSE closed Palladium was trading at $940.24/oz. Platinum, however, was weaker, trading at $917.34/oz just after the JSE's close.
Brent Crude traded weaker today as it slid to intra-day lows of $57.14 per barrel. The commodity was trading at $57.10 per barrel just after the JSE closed. JSE-listed oil and gas producer, Sasol [JSE:SOL] also traded weaker, to close the day at R.371.00 per share, or down 0.13%.
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