A firmer rand gave the JSE direction on Tuesday, with banks and retailers jumping as the local currency hit a two-and-a-half-year high against the dollar. Locally focused stocks in general gained, with the JSE’s mid-cap and small-cap indices each up about 0.8%. Miners suffered, under additional pressure from softer prices for most commodities. Local data were positive, with mining output growth accelerating to 6.5% in November, beating a Trading Economics forecast of 4.8%. Although a solid increase, the longer-term prospects for the industry remained less certain due to the difficult operating environment, said Nedbank Group Economic Unit analysts. Market heavyweight Naspers also helped push the index into positive territory, gaining 2.34% to R3,684.39, in line with Chinese associate Tencent. TFG, up 5.17% to R181, lifted the retail index after a trading update in which it reported 17.1% in turnover growth for the nine months to end-December. The all share closed 0.68% higher at 60‚...
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