Cape Town - The JSE recorded gains on Friday as the local bourse was buoyed by retailers and financials stocks.
The move higher by rand sensitive stocks was mainly as a result of the rand, which strengthened significantly against a basket of major currency pairs.
The local currency gained enough momentum to break below the R14/$ level as it reached an intra-day high of R13.95 against the US dollar. At 17:00, the USD/ZAR had retraced slightly to trade at R14.04/$.
Retailers Truworths [JSE:TRU] and The Foschini Group were among the biggest gainers of the day as they closed up 5.57% and 5.75% respectively.
The Spar Group [JSE:SPP] recorded another day of gains to close the day up 5.73%.
Naspers [JSE:NPN], meanwhile, reached a new all time high of R3896.51 per share. This was on the back of the fresh all time high of HK$405.00 reached by Tencent Holdings in Friday's session on the Hang Seng.
This, in turn, supported the JSE All-Share index which broke above 60 000 points once again. Naspers [JSE:NPN] closed at R3845.00 per share, up 3.56% for the day.
Steinhoff continued climbing from its recent slump to gain another 1.70%, while Dis-Chem [JSE:DCP] and Imperial Holdings [JSE:IPL] climbed 1.66% and 3.74% respectively.
Mediclinic was among the biggest losers of the day losing 4.98%, while blue chip index heavyweight, Richemont [JSE:CFR] shed 2.57%.
Consolidated Infrastructure Group [JSE:CIL] which has been attempting to recover from its recent slump, came under pressure again as its hare price dropped by 18.32%.
Brait [JSE:BAT], meanwhile, continued to slide as it lost another 2.85%.
All-Share
The JSE All-Share Index closed up 0.97%, while the Top-40 index gained 0.99%. The Financials Index benefitted from the firmer rand to close up 1.53%, while the Industrials Index gained 1.40%. The Resources Index ended the day 0.59% weaker.
Metal commodities traded relatively firmer on Friday which saw Ggld recording modest gains to peak at an intra-day high $1 287.18 per ounce.
This strength was due to a relatively weaker US dollar earlier on. The dollar did have a minor recovery after the release of better than expected US Building Permits and Housing Starts data, however. Gold was trading at $1285.27/Oz just after the JSE closed.
Palladium peaked at an intra-day high of $997.13/Oz while Platinum peaked at $944.35/Oz. This supported stocks such as Impala Platinum [JSE:IMP] and Royal Bafokeng Platinum [JSE:RBP] which closed up 0.43% and 1.31%.
Palladium was trading at $992.40/Oz just after the JSE closed and platinum at $942.38/Oz.
Brent Crude, meanwhile, gained more than 1% to peak at $62.30 per barrel. When the JSE closed it was recorded at $62.04 per barrel.
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