No change in UK prime minister cheers rand and markets

The all share index ended 2017 at 59,505 points. But, from a strong start in which it set a record of 61,777 points on January 26, the stock exchange spent most of the year in the doldrums before sinking under 50,200 points in December. 

A recent rebound to 51,598 points has helped the JSE reduced its year-to-date loss to 13%.

No JSE-listed companies are diarised to release results on Thursday, but it is a busy day on the economics front with 10 scheduled releases from Stats SA.

The most important of these is November’s producer price index (PPI) at 11.30am. The economists’ consensus is factory and farm gate inflation, as measured by the annual change in PPI, will have slowed to about 6.8% from October’s 6.9%.