The JSE opened marginally stronger on Wednesday on firmer miners, supported by a weaker rand, despite global markets losing ground on a hawkish message from US Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen. The softer rand put early pressure on banks and retailers as the rand traded at R13.04 to the dollar soon after the JSE’s opening. Yellen reaffirmed the Fed’s commitment to further interest-rate increases but said rates could remain low for some time. "We think it would be appropriate for the attainment of our goals to raise interest rates very gradually to levels that are likely to remain quite low, although there is uncertainty about this," she said. The market viewed the statement as hawkish, with the dollar weakening through $1.13 to the euro. In early morning trade the dollar retreated even further, weakening to $1.1372 and could be heading to $1.15, analysts say. The Dow Jones closed 0.46% weaker at 21,310.66 points on Tuesday. Sentiment was negative following the $2.7bn fine lev...
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