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The JSE advanced on Friday as retailers and financials continued to lift the local bourse higher.
Blue-chips were trading mostly in positive territory which helped maintain the upward momentum on the JSE. Retailer Truworths [JSE:TRU] was buoyed by the release of a positive trading statement for the full-year ended 1 July 2018. The stock added 3.22% to close at R79.24 per share. The Foschini Group [JSE:TFG] added 3.18% to close at R166.39, while Mr Price [JSE:MRP] firmed to R225.08 after adding 2.22%.
BlueTel Communications [JSE:BLU] has traded under significant pressure lately, however in today’s session it recouped some of those losses to close at R9.08 per share after jumping 8.87%. Rhodes Food Group [JSE:RFG] added 3.35% to close at R18.82, while British American Tobacco [JSE:BTI] firmed to close at R695.36 after posting gains of 3.72%. Banks ABSA Group [JSE:ABG] and Capitec Holdings [JSE:CPI] gained 3.28% and 2.72% respectively.
On the day’s losers, Steinhoff International [JSE:SNH] declined sharply to close 9.27% weaker at R3.23 per share. Coal miner Exxaro Resources [JSE:EXX] lost 6.09% to close at R128.88, and diversified miner South32 [JSE:S32] closed at R34.70 after shedding 4.2%. Iron ore miner Kumba Iron Ore [JSE:KIO] lost 4.29% to end the day at R287.55 per share, while African Rainbow Minerals [JSE:ARI] shed 2.59% to close at R109.12.
On the blue-chip index losses were fairly mild, with BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL] easing 1.08% to close at R285.34 per share, while Anglo American [JSE:AGL] was 0.96% weaker to close at R282.20. Mondi Limited [JSE:MND] settled at R360.47 per share after dropping 0.47%.
The local bourse gained more momentum towards the close, which saw the JSE All-Share index close 1.27% higher, while the JSE Top-40 index gained 1.4%. The Financials and Industrials indices managed to gain 1.99% and 1.89% respectively. However, the Resources index retreated to end the day 0.56% softer. For this trading week, the JSE firmed by 1.11%.
Metal commodities staged a minor recovery in today’s session which saw gold peak at a session high of $1 232.18/oz. At 17:00, the precious metal was trading 0.48% firmer at $1 228.65/oz. Platinum was up 2.72% at $829.04/oz and palladium was trading 2.27% at $892.52/oz.
Brent crude traded firmer on the day which saw it trade at $73.06 just after the JSE close, up 0.66% on the day.
In the crypto market, Ethereum was trading 2.49% weaker at $463.54/coin and Bitcoin was only up 0.12% to trade at $7 490.80/coin by 17:00.
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