JSE rallies higher before the Brexit

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange JSE put up a decent performance on Wednesday, as financial stocks extended their rally into a fifth consecutive session.

Interest-rate sensitive retailers also featured prominently on the winners' board after headline inflation decelerated further in May, against market expectations.

The consumer price index slowed to an annual pace of 6.1 percent in May from 6.2 percent in April, suggesting that the Reserve Bank may leave interest rates on hold when it meets in July.

The rally in the financial and retail sectors helped the all share index gain 1.14 percent to 53557.20 at market close, bringing gains in the index to just more than 2 percent since Monday.

Although gold miners fell 0.69 percent, financials rose 2.19 percent along with other sectors, gold had lost 0.07 percent to sell at $1266.68 an ounce.

The JSE, in line with other overseas markets, has rallied in anticipation of Britain voting to stay in the EU when it goes to a referendum on Thursday.

The latest opinion polls indicate the UK result could be a cliffhanger, with the "remain" and "leave" camps evenly balanced, and undecided voters a crucial factor.

Among some individual share prices, Nedbank lifted 3.01 percent to R190.00, with FirstRand gaining 2.46 percent to R45.87.

Barclays Africa jumped 4.19 percent to R 151.48 while Sanlam was up 2.73 percent to R64.04.

Anglo American, lost 1.90 percent to R353.17 while Naspers gained 1.97 percent to R2,227.12. Endit