South African rand jumps

South Africa's rand powered to a one-month best on Tuesday, lifted by a brightening outlook on a trade deal between China and the United States and locally by a second day without electricity blackouts. Stocks slipped despite grocer Pick n Pay's shares climbing by their most in 18 years, with the bourse dragged down by resource miners and rand hedges. At 1630 GMT the rand was 1.05% firmer at 14.6150 per dollar, its best level since September 19, compared to an open of 14.7550.

The rand marked a fourth consecutive session of gains, shaking off lingering concerns about electricity supply after shock outages last week as state firm Eskom said failures at some of its stations had throttled capacity. In stocks, the Johannesburg All-Share index fell 0.31% to 55,936 points, while the Top-40 index dipped 0.45% to 49,610 points, with gold miners the main drag on the bourse. Anglo Platinum was down 3.82% to 105.40 rand, Kumba fell 6.38% to 336.81 rand. Petrochemical giant Sasol saw a 7.38% slide on the day to 267.22 rand.