Healthier U.S. growth buoys JSE

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African stocks rose on Tuesday riding an optimistic wave created by encouraging U.S. growth data that also lifted financial sector stocks such as Standard Bank.

Defensive stocks such Life Healthcare also held sway despite the feel-good factor created by the U.S. Commerce Department revising its third-quarter economic growth estimate up to a 5.0 percent from an earlier 3.9 percent.

Johannesburg's Top-40 index added 0.5 percent to 43,820 and the All-share was up by a similar margin to 49,568.

"We might see the markets continue to rally. With the U.S. GDP a little bit better, we can expect a market rally going into the new year," said Mark Sluzki, CEO of brokerage Newstrading.

"The Christmas rally is in full-swing and we'll have to re-evaluate next year, especially regarding the oil price."

Hospital group Life Healthcare was the biggest gainer after adding more than 3 percent while Africa's largest lender Standard Bank was up 2 percent.

Despite hitting a series of lifetime highs this year, South African stocks have gained only about 6 percent so far in 2014 as a blend of market doldrums around the global and economic woes at home slowed momentum.

The stocks are expected to make little headway from current levels until June, when potential monetary stimulus in the euro zone and an improving U.S. economy will drive them higher, according to a Reuters poll forecast.

Activity at the Johannesburg bourse was thin with most investors having already left for the year-end holidays. Just over 100 million shares were traded, well below last year's daily average of 176 million shares.