JSE set for positive session in line with global markets

The JSE will likely push higher on Thursday, driven mainly by stocks of companies that make most of their income outside SA.

The rand was relatively stable against the dollar amid relative calm in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal after days violent of protests that descended into widespread looting of shops, warehouses and factories.

The so-called SA Inc stocks, such as retailers, banks and food producers, could rebound after sharp losses earlier in the week.

Preliminary estimates put the cost of the looting and damage to property at about R10bn, which has the potential to derail the recovery in the economy, which is still hurting from the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The local currency recovered to R14.490/$, after weakening to a three-month low of about R14.73/$ earlier in the week.

The rand’s recovery was also bolstered by a weaker dollar, after Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday the Fed was unlikely to scale back monetary stimulus and that higher US inflation was transitory.

Oanda senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley said in a note the Fed “remains with its tent firmly pitched in the transitory inflation camp, and that the [Fed] were still far away from meeting the conditions to begin tapering monetary stimulus”.

Elsewhere, commodity prices were fairly mixed, with platinum gaining 1.07% to $11.40.14/oz and Brent crude shedding 0.40% to $74.24 a barrel. 

mahlangua@businesslive.co.za