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Johannesburg - The JSE traded firmer on Wednesday, shaking off some of the losses sustained on Tuesday as international markets rallied on the back of stronger earnings numbers from Dow Jones industrial heavyweights.
Strong earnings reported out of Mediclinic [JSE:MEI] on Wednesday pushed the local bourse higher as the diversified hospital group chalked up gains of 7.42% to close the day at 1 1470c.
The hospital group has been under pressure since the reverse takeover of the then London Stock Exchange (LSE) listed Al Noor Hospitals.
Regulatory uncertainty in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) saw the group's share price decline by over 54% from its listing price, putting in a low in March of 2018.
Rand hedges Reinet [JSE:RNI] and British American Tobacco [JSE:BTI] eased by 2.95% and 1.38% respectively. INTU [JSE:ITU] properties eased 8.27% on Wednesday after the REIT announced that the much talked about corporate action with Hammerson [JSE:HMN] was put on ice.
Hammerson gained 2.61% on the back of the announcement to trade at 8 698c. Other locally listed REITS were not spared on the day as Rebosis [JSE:REB], Echo Polska [JSE:EPP] and Liberty Two Degree [JSE:L2D] eased 7.8%,4.58% and 3.73% respectively.
Retail sales figures continue to surprise to the upside as year-on-year (y/y) data showed that sales increased by 4.9%, up from last month’s mark of 3.3%.
The stronger retail numbers gave local retailers some short-term relief as The Foschini Group [JSE:TFG], Truworths [JSE:TRU] and Woolworths [JSE:WHL] chalked up gains of 1.99%, 1.77% and 1.63% respectively.
Steinhoff International [JSE:SNH] continued to make progress as the embattled furniture retailer rallied 5.15% to close at R2.45 per share.
The JSE Top-40 Index eventually closed up 1.69% while the broader JSE All-Share Index gained 1.56%. The Resource index rallied 3.39%, while the Industrial and Financial Indices inched up 0.91% and 1.17% respectively.
The rand traded firmer against the greenback to peak at a session high of R11.92/$. The local unit rallied on the back of stronger inflation figures released by Statistics South Africa on Wednesday.
The government agency stated that y/y inflation had increased by 3.8%, which was lower than the market forecast of 4.1%.
At 17.00 CAT, the rand was trading at R11.92/$.
Gold was firmer on the day as the precious yellow metal continues to find direction. Recent geopolitical concerns have seen the precious metal rally. However, any hint of normalcy returning has seen gold losing ground at rapid pace.
The precious metal made a session low of $1 342 per ounce before rebounding to trade at $1 351.8/oz at 17.00 CAT. This US dollar was on the back foot against most major currencies on Wednesday, trading at a session low of 89.45.
Platinum group metals continued their rally on Wednesday, as platinum traded firmer in line with gold reaching a high of $949.2/oz, to trade at $947/oz at the time of writing.
Palladium followed suit as the metal rallied to stay above the psychological $1 000/oz mark, to trade at $1 040/oz at 17:00 CAT.
At the time of writing, Brent Crude was changing hands at $72 after the weekly crude inventory numbers reflected a draw of 1.07 million barrels.
