MARKET WRAP: JSE gains on stronger miners as rand firms on repo-rate decision
It was a good day for the JSE, futures, bonds and the rand as the Reserve Bank kept the repo rate at 7%, but revised its inflation forecast upwards
The JSE finished higher on Tuesday as miners made good gains for the second day running. The rand firmed to a six-month high to the dollar after the Reserve Bank decided to keep the repo rate at 7%. But a higher inflation forecast from the Bank damped hit hopes of rates coming down soon. Headline inflation is now expected to return to within the 3%-6% target range only in the fourth quarter and to average 6.2% for 2017 compared with the previous forecast of 5.8%. The all share closed 0.57% higher at 53,342 points with the blue-chip top 40 adding 0.49%. The platinum index rose 5.25%, resources 1.85% and the gold index 1.52%. General retailers were up 1.32%, but banks shed 0.52%. Spot gold was flat at $1,216.76 an ounce, while platinum was up 1.38% to $993. Brent crude firmed 0.61% to $55.67 a barrel. Stanlib retail investment director Paul Hansen said the dollar was still the main market driver to watch. "A stronger dollar is negative for the US economy, but a weaker dollar is overal...
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