The JSE enjoyed the odometer effects of the all share index clocking 61,000 points and the top 40 index clocking 55,000 points for the first time on Tuesday.

The all share index closed 1.18% higher at 61,212 points and the top 40 closed 1.36% higher at 55,065 points.

The JSE is likely to move further into record territory on Wednesday, judging from the buoyant mood of Asian markets.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 0.7%, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index was up 0.7% and Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 index was up 0.5% at 6:25am.

The rand was holding under R14/$, trading at R13.99/$, R16.42/€ and R18.54/£.

Statistics SA is scheduled to release October’s consumer price index (CPI) at 10am.

The annual change in CPI is the key measure of inflation used by the Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee to set interest rates. The central bank’s governor and chair of the monetary policy committee, Lesetja Kganyago, will announce whether there is to be any change to interest rates at 3pm on Thursday.

Investec Bank economist Kamilla Kaplan forecasts the annual change in CPI will have slowed to 4.9% in October from 5.1% in September, strengthening the case for the central bank to hold its repo rate at 6.75%.

South African commercial banks by convention add 3.5 percentage points to the central bank’s repo rate, meaning they are likely to hold their prime rate at 10.25% on Thursday.

“In October, the contribution from the fuel price component [to CPI inflation] is expected to have decreased as petrol and diesel prices rose by 4c and 23c a litre respectively, compared with an increase of 29c and 41c a litre in September,” Kaplan said in note on Friday.

“The October CPI update is also expected to reflect a continued moderation in food price inflation, which fell to 5.4% in September from double digit growth in 2016 and the first quarter of 2017.”

In corporate news, the Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) family of companies is scheduled to release interim results on Wednesday. These include casino group Tsogo Sun, and now also hotel-focused property group Hospitality.

Parent HCI said on November 6 it expected to report headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the six months to end-September grew by between 3% and 13%.

Basic earnings, however, rose as much as 81% due the comparative period including losses from disposals, which were excluded from HEPS.

During the reporting period, assets were shuffled between subsidiaries Tsogo Sun and Niveus. Tsogo said it expected HEPS to grow by up to 24% while Niveus said its would grow by up to 52%.

HCI also owns e.tv holding company eMedia, which said on November 17 it expected its headline loss per share to narrow to about 0.5c from the matching period’s 14.48c.

Source: Business Live – Robert Laing