Surprise rate hike boosts rand, stocks gain

Top movers Graph of the day

FTSE/JSE Africa Index Series

THE RAND traded at two-week highs against the dollar on Friday, still boosted by the central bank unexpectedly raising interest rates the previous day to curb inflation pressures.

The rand climbed to R13.89 to the dollar during Friday’s session, its strongest since November 6. At 5pm, the local currency was bid at R13.9038 to the greenback, 13.25c firmer than at the same time on Thursday.

This was after the central bank raised the benchmark repo rate by 25 basis points on Thursday, warning that failure to act on inflation risks could worsen the country’s already weak growth.

Meanwhile, stocks ended slightly higher on Friday, led by Mr Price as investors piled into the discount clothes retailer after a broker upgraded the stock to “buy”.

The blue chip JSE Top40 index added 0.24 percent to 46 963.11 points and the broader all share index gained by the same margin to 52 240.58 points.

which also reported a 16 percent increase in half-year earnings this week, jumped 8.7 percent to R200.01.

Mr Price,

gained 5.99 percent to R357, a level last seen in February.

On the downside, was off 1.25 percent to close at R142 as it battles to reduce a $5.2 billion (R72.3bn) fine in Nigeria.

Tiger Brands

MTN Group