No change in UK prime minister cheers rand and markets
The JSE desperately needs the Santa rally to continue to mitigate its 2018 losses, while November’s producer inflation is expected to have slowed slightly
The rand appeared to cheer UK Prime Minister Theresa May's ability to survive Wednesday night’s no-confidence vote, with the currency trading at R17.82/£, R16.06/€ and R14.13/$ at 6.20am. May’s survival also helped Asian markets remain buoyant. Naspers’s main asset, Tencent, was up 0.82% to HK$319.40, helping the Hang Seng index rise 1.34%. In Sydney, BHP was up 2% to A$32.84, helping the ASX 200 index gain 0.32% and pointing to a good day for the JSE’s miners. The JSE’s all share index desperately needs the past few days’ “Santa rally” to continue to mitigate its losses for 2018.
The all share index ended 2017 at 59,505 points. But, from a strong start in which it set a record of 61,777 points on January 26, the stock exchange spent most of the year in the doldrums before sinking under 50,200 points in December. A recent rebound to 51,598 points has helped the JSE reduced its year-to-date loss to 13%. No JSE-listed companies are diarised to release results on Thursday, but it...
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