The JSE closed firmer on Friday as rand hedges rebounded following the retracement in the rand.

Rand hedges found some momentum as the rand retreated from its overnight highs. The rand did strengthen to a session high of R14.66 against the US dollar, however it erased all the gains to eventually trade at R14.87/$ at 17.00 CAT.

The biggest gainers on the day were Investec Limited [JSE:INL] and Investec PLC [JSE:INP] which gained 9.8% and 9.36% respectively. This was mainly on the back of the firm’s announcement that it intends to demerge the business’s asset management arm and list it separately. Mondi PLC [JSE:MNP] rose to R416.10 after adding 3.08%, while Sappi [JSE:SAP] gained 3.84% to close at R98.25 per share.

Diversified miner, South32 [JSE:S32] climbed 4.36% to close at R40.93, while industry peer, Anglo American PLC [JSE:AGL] gained 2.46% to end the day at R298.51 per share. Telkom [JSE:TKG] firmed to R50.89 after adding 2.7%, while Glencore [JSE:GLN] posted gains of 1.9% to close at R58.90 per share.

Aspen [JSE:APN] slumped below R200 per share as the sell-off in the stock intensified. The stock reached a session low of R185.71 before it closed 17.77% weaker at R225.00 per share. Net 1 UEPS [JSE:NT1] lost most of Thursday’s gains to end the day down 12.27% at R96.94 per share. Trencor [JSE:TRE] slipped by 3.2% to close at R32.32, while Delta Properties [JSE:DLT] fell to R5.94 after shedding 3.41%.

Retailers traded softer with stocks such as Woolworths [JSE:WHL] dropping 0.87% to R51.33, while Mr Price [JSE:MRP] retreated to close at R214.53 after losing 0.14%. NEPI Rockcastle [JSE:NRP] closed 1.12% weaker at R136.45, and Redefine Properties [JSE:RDF] lost 1.39% to R9.91 per share.

The JSE All-Share index closed 0.74% higher while the JSE Top-40 index gained 0.9%. All the major indices managed to record gains on the day with the biggest gainer being the Resources index which rose 1.84%. The Industrials and Financials indices gained 0.28% and 0.96% respectively.

Gold pared its day’s gains towards the JSE close to eventually trade 0.24% weaker at $1198.63/Oz at 17.00 CAT. Platinum was up 0.13% at $804.04/Oz, and Palladium was up 0.3% to trade at $985.05/Oz.

Brent crude traded mostly flat before it fell sharply towards the JSE close. It was trading 0.52% weaker at $77.77/barrel just after the JSE close.

At 17.00 CAT, Bitcoin was flat to trade at $6450.70/coin, while Ethereum was up 0.51% to trade at $204.98/coin.