The JSE’s general retailers gained 4% on Thursday as punters bet on strong Christmas sales. But mixed signals from Asian markets on Friday morning made it unclear its the bourse could end the week on a high note. Possibly thanks to an uptick in consumer confidence reported on Thursday morning, Massmart’s share price jumped 7.68%, Mr Price 6.38%, Truworths 5.22% and The Foschini Group closed 5.14% higher. Miners also enjoyed a good day, with the JSE’s index of its ten biggest resources groups gaining 2.7%. Glencore rose 5.15%, Anglo American 4.04% and BHP Billiton 3.21%. Retailers and miners helped the JSE’s all share index gain 2.16% to 50,543 points on Thursday — which is still well below its 55,188 point peak reached on April 24 2015. Several US and Japanese general market indices, on the other hand, are now at fresh records. A rally by Nintendo following the launch of its Super Mario Run smartphone game helped Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index gain 1.25%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, on t...
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