The JSE gained for a second consecutive trading day following a rebound in US stocks towards the end of last week.
The All Share Index closed at 67 826.78 adding 2.23%.
The local bourse was helped by a surge in heavyweights Naspers and Prosus, which saw the duo add over 22% and 18% respectively. The news comes as the pair plan to slowly begin selling off parts of its stake in Chinese tech firm Tencent to fund its share buy-back programme.
The news follows a 40% decline in core headline earnings for Naspers, down to just $2.1 billion while Prosus saw a decline of 23% to $3.7 billion for the year to end March 31.
A crackdown on tech companies in China has left Tencent hard hit in recent months, which has, in turn, weighed heavily on Naspers and Prosus who currently have a 28.9% stake in Tencent.
In the currency markets, the rand continues to trade between R15.70 and R16.00 to the US dollar and closes the day at R15.85/$.
“We saw some brief strength from the local unit earlier this morning, but it was short-lived and traded as high as R15.90 during the afternoon. Risk appetite has picked up over the past few days, despite growing signs of global economic weakness, which helped the rand and other EM’s earlier today,” comments forex trading house TreasuryONE.
On the commodity front, metals have been under pressure over the past few sessions with growing concerns that an economic slowdown will lower the demand for metals.
Copper is still close to its 16-month low after trading at $8,370 earlier on in the day.
Palladium rebounded nicely, climbing over just over 1%, while platinum is still hovering around $900.
Brent crude has bounced further today, with the price per barrel climbing nearly 1% and currently quoted at $114.30, says TreasuryONE.
