Financial, retail stocks boost bourse

Top movers Graph of the day

FTSE/JSE Africa Index Series

STOCKS rose yesterday led by financial and retail shares on prospects of fewer bad debts for lenders and less pressure on consumers.

The benchmark JSE Top40 index advanced 2.31 percent to 45 307.58 points, while the all share index gained 2.24 percent to 51 895.18 points.

The US Federal Reserve’s decision on Wednesday to hold rates along with a dovish tone kept emerging stocks higher yesterday, while the SA Reserve Bank’s decision to keep the repo rate unchanged further supported the financials and retailer sectors.

“There’s less pressure on consumers and that means bad debts would be contained more than they would of in a higher rate environment, financials are beneficiaries as would be the retailers,” said a trader at Standard Bank Stockbroking, Rudi van der Merwe.

gained R190.70, while 3.96 percent to R80.69.

Among financials, 2.98 percent to R224.50 and

was up 3.91 percent to R143.13. Meanwhile, jumped 6.93 percent to close at R37.80.

World stocks jumped and the Nasdaq hit a record high, while bonds rallied, a day after the Fed signalled an increasingly cautious approach to future US rate increases.

Shoprite Bank

4.15 percent to was up

Woolworths Nedbank Standard

Glencore

rose