The JSE advanced to close firmer on Friday capping off a week of decent gains for the local bourse.

The local index tracked other global markets higher which were buoyed by the newly announced stimulus package from the European Central Bank, as well as thawing trade tensions between the USA and China. Positive US retail sales data also helped to briefly reduce recession fears which have been triggered by the inversion of US Treasury yields recently.

The currency market resumed its uptrend as the rand gained against the greenback to peak at a session high of R14.50/$. At 17.00 CAT, the rand was trading 0.51% firmer at R14.51/$.

Gains were primarily led by rand sensitive stocks particularly those in the financials index. Banker, Investec PLC [JSE:INP] rallied 4.61% to close at R89.62, ABSA Group [JSE:ABG]  gained 3.05% to close at R167.00, and Standard Bank [JSE:SBK] managed to add 1.45% to end the day at R187.78. Diversified mining giant Anglo American PLC [JSE:AGL] rose 3.7% as it closed at R358.64, while South32 [JSE:S32] managed to gain 3.52% to close at R28.49. Listed property stocks also recorded decent gains on the day which saw stocks such as Intu Properties [JSE:ITU] rally 5.15% to close at R8.17, while Hammerson PLC [JSE:HMN] climbed 6.57% to close at R49.96.

Gold miners on the JSE tumbled in today’s session as the gold metal price slid back below $1500/Oz. Harmony Gold [JSE:HAR] closed amongst the day’s biggest losers after falling 9.19% to close at R44.19, AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] lost 8.38% to close at R279.25, and Gold Fields [JSE:GFI] fell 7.96% to R68.30. Platinum miners also struggled with losses being recorded for Impala Platinum [JSE:IMP] which lost 4.83% to close at R85.65, and Northam Platinum [JSE:NHM] which closed at R75.87 after losing 1.47%. Other significant losses on the day were recorded for Massmart [JSE:MSM] which lost 6.06% to close at R45.89, British American Tobacco [JSE:BTI] which fell 2.47% to close at R538.90, and Bid Corporation [JSE:BID] which lost 1.91% to close at R321.25.

The blue-chip JSE Top-40 index eventually closed 0.97% firmer while the broader JSE All-Share index closed 0.79% higher. The Industrials index managed to add a modest 0.28%, while the Resources and Financials indices gained 1.04% and 1.95% respectively.

At 17.00 CAT, Palladium had lost 0.99% to trade at $1603.45/Oz, Gold was 0.26% softer at $1495.14/Oz, while Platinum was up 0.46% to trade at $955.65/Oz.

Slowing demand concerns saw brent crude retreat from its session highs to trade 0.6% weaker at $60.02/barrel just after the JSE close.

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