After having opened and trading mostly firmer in the morning session on Thursday, the local bourse relinquished most of its gains despite eventually closing firmer on the day.

Disappointing South African mining production data played a factor in this retracement as mining production YoY for the month of October contracted by 2.9%, worsening from a prior recording of -0.6%. Producer inflation for the month of November also slowed according to data released by Stats SA. PPI MoM was recorded of -0.3% which was better than the forecast of 0.3% as well as the prior recording of 0.3%. PPI YoY was recorded at 2.3% which was an improvement from the prior recording of 3%.

The rand strengthened overnight against the greenback as it closed below R14.70/$. The local unit was trading relatively flat in today’s session before it was recorded trading 0.58% firmer at R14.58/$ at 17.00 CAT.

On the international markets, the US Fed interest rate decision on Wednesday did not result in significant volatility for stocks. On Thursday, the ECB reiterated its commitment to continue bond purchases which saw the euro nudge higher. However, stocks in that bloc were trading marginally softer on the day.

On the JSE, index heavyweight Naspers [JSE:NPN] led gains as it advanced 1.22% to close at R2075.00, while Prosus [JSE:PRX] gained 1.18% to close at R978.50. Trencor [JSE:TRE] trucked ahead as it added another 11.99% to close at R9.25, while Fortress REIT [JSE:FFB] rallied 5.39% to close at R8.01. More gains were recorded for gold miners such as Harmony Gold [JSE:HAR] which firmed 1.13% to close at R48.39, while Gold Fields [JSE:GFI] rose 2.09% to close at R89.71. Retailer, Truworths [JSE:TRU] surged on the day as it rose 3.6% to close at R47.80, while packaging firm Nampak [JSE:NPK] also recorded decent gains of 3.14% to close at R6.24. Other significant gains on the day were recorded for Telkom [JSE:TKG] which climbed 1.31% to close at R41.10, Sappi [JSE:SAP] which added 2.88% to close at R45.70, and Old Mutual [JSE:OMU] which closed at R18.80 after gaining 0.86%.

Accelerate Property Fund [JSE:APF] gave up most of the prior session’s gains as it fell 5.95% to close at R1.58, while Capital & Counties [JSE:CCO] retreated 1.53% to close at R48.25. Rand hedge, Bid Corporation [JSE:BID] lost 3.24% as it close at R328.33, while Reinet Investments [JSE:RNI] dropped 2.92% to close at R276.82. Retailers tracked mostly lower in today’s session which saw losses being recorded for Pick n Pay [JSE:PIK] which lost 2.73% to close at R64.83, Massmart [JSE:MSM] which dropped 2.97% to close at R50.00, and The Spar Group [JSE:SPP] which closed at R195.82 after losing 1.2%. Losses were also recorded Coronation Fund Managers [JSE:CML] which lost 2.09% to close at R39.76, and Barloworld [JSE:BAW] which fell 1.12% to close at R109.94.

The JSE All-Share index closed 0.21% firmer while the JSE Top-40 index rose 0.13%. The Financials index closed 0.17% softer, while the Industrials and Resources managed to gain 0.31% and 0.1% respectively.

At 17.00 CAT, Platinum was 0.35% softer at $936.65/Oz, Gold had shed 0.38% to trade at $1469.08/Oz, and Palladium was up 1.23% to trade at $1933.49/Oz.

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