JSE rallies on retailers and banks as ECB extends stimulus programme
The JSE closed sharply higher on Thursday as the local market looked past disappointing mining and manufacturing data and instead followed surging global markets after the European Central Bank (ECB) extended its stimulus programme. Retailers and banks were firm favourites, in risk-on trade, as resources also rose on the weaker rand, and despite softer metal prices. Mining output dropped by an annual 2.9% in October, much worse than the expected growth of 2.7%. Output in the manufacturing sector also performed poorly, falling by an annual 2.7% from expected growth of 0.7%. The data suggested that the economy may have performed even worse in the fourth quarter than in the third, when growth was a tepid 0.2%, said Capital Economics economist John Ashbourne. The bad news did not affect the JSE, however, with miners and industrials getting a boon from the ECB decision to extend its asset purchasing programme to December 2017 from the end of March, but to reduce it to a monthly €60bn fro...
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