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The local index started the week in stride as it closed firmer on Monday, mainly on the back of broad-based gains across all the main sectors.
The JSE advanced despite weaker closes in Asian equities on Monday, which failed to get a lift from the resumption of trade talks between the US and China.
The Hang Seng struggled as it fell 1.03%, while in mainland China the Shanghai Composite Index dropped a more modest 0.11%. In Japan, the Nikkei lost 0.19%.
Export driven counters in the UK advanced as the pound weakened on the back of news that the new prime minister was stepping up preparations for a no-deal Brexit. In the US stocks opened marginally softer on the back of declines in some of the index's biggest tech stocks.
The rand had a volatile session which saw it slide to a session low of R14.31/$ before it gained momentum to recoup all of its losses and trade firmer on the day. At 17:00 CAT, the rand was trading 0.58% firmer at R14.20/$.
On the local bourse, cement maker PPC [JSE:PPC] closed as one of the day's biggest gainers after it rose 4.26% to close at R4.90. Telecoms provider MTN Group [JSE:MTN] managed to gain 3% as it closed at R109.98, mainly on the back of positive earnings for MTN Nigeria, while its sector peer Blue Label Telecoms [JSE:BLU] added 3.7% to close at R3.64.
Discovery [JSE:DSY] climbed 3.24% to close at R133.70, while Sanlam [JSE:SLM] gained 3.07% to close at R75.32. Platinum miner Impala Platinum [JSE:IMP] surged 4.81% to end the day at R77.82, while Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS] rose 2.72% to close at R871.26. Sasol [JSE:SOL] which weakened significantly last week, had some reprieve as it gained 2.22% to close at R317.38.
Hammerson PLC [JSE:HMN] came under significant pressure following the release of its half-year results which showed a decline in earnings. The stock lost 6.25% to close at R44.82. Other listed property stocks also struggled, which saw stocks such as Accelerate Property Fund [JSE:APF] drop 4.31% to close at R3.11, while Intu Properties [JSE:ITU] weakened by 3.7% to end the day at R13.00.
Other significant losses on the day were recorded for Stadio Holdings [JSE:SDO] which fell 4.59% to close at R2.91, as well as Massmart [JSE:MSM] which fell 1.27% to close at R58.90.
The blue-chip JSE Top-40 index closed 0.88% firmer while the broader JSE All-Share index rose 0.64%. All the major indices closed firmer with the biggest gainer being the Financials index which climbed 1.11%. The Industrials and Resources indices gained 0.63% and 0.8%.
Brent crude traded mostly flat on the day and it was recorded trading flat at $63.38/barrel just after the JSE close.
At 17:00 CAT, Palladium was up 1.3% to trade at $1 552.50/Oz, Platinum had gained 1.75% to trade at $879.45/Oz, and Gold had inched 0.13% to trade at $1 420.34/Oz.
* Musa Makoni is a trading specialist at Purple Group.
