A handful of big industrial stocks on the JSE on Thursday countered apparent signs of profit taking in certain stocks, which enjoyed solid support earlier in the week.An index of the top 25 industrial companies gained 1.49%, boosted in part by corporate earnings and a slightly weaker rand. These left the all share up 0.54% to 59,281.30 points by lunchtime, as the top 40 gained 0.83%.However, other indices performed poorly, suggesting investors were keen to book profits in the recently high-flying stocks, including retailers. Platinum stocks, in particular, suffered from a big drop in underlying commodity prices on Wednesday night. The platinum price was off 0.55% to $947.81 an ounce, having dropped nearly 2% a day earlier.On balance, the global backdrop was moderately positive for local equities, even though the US import tariff concerns continued to weigh on sentiment."It’s been a relatively calm start to trading on Thursday, as we wait for the latest monetary policy announcement f...
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