SOUTH African stocks ignored a weaker opening in the Dow and closed in the black today supported by banking and financial stocks, resources as well as firm commodities on the back of a weaker dollar.
In late trade the all share index was up 2,77%, resources added 2,90%, platinum stocks jumped 6,69% and gold stocks were up 0,47%. Banks firmed 6,53%, financials strengthened 3,40% and industrials collected 2,28%.
The rand was last bid at R9,89 to the dollar from R10,15 when the JSE closed on Monday, while gold was last quoted at $866,58 a troy ounce from $827,65/oz at the JSE’s last close.
The platinum price was at $861,50/oz, from its previous close of $860,50/oz, and Brent crude was at $47,06 per barrel from $46,65 before.
"The dollar has weakened significantly in he last couple of hours and that has propped up commodity prices," a trader said.
"Financials are strong and are holding us up nicely. Resources are also helping," he said.
"Local markets also had to factor in a day after being closed for yesterday’s public holiday," he said.
"The rand is stronger and it is possible that it could be hampering some moves on the market," he added.
Earlier in the day the trader pointed out that the local CPI and CPIX data released by Statistics SA today had no impact on equities.
The increase in SA’s consumer price index excluding mortgage rate changes (CPIX) for metro and other areas, which is used by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) for its inflation target, was up 12,1% year-on-year (y/y) in November from 12,4% y/y in October, Statistics SA (Stats SA) said.
This is the third monthly decline after the record 13,6% registered in August.
Dow Jones Newswires reports that US stocks gave back some gains at the open of today’s session as brokerage Morgan Stanley reported fiscal fourth- quarter results that were worse than many analysts had expected.
Financial firms rallied yesterday after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to historic lows and signaled a shift to quantitative easing, but the quarterly results from Morgan Stanley were a grim reminder of the challenges ahead for the embattled sector.
The DJIA was last down 1,19%.
