Stocks ended in the black on Wednesday with banks and financials leading the charge after consumer inflation data for June came in broadly in line with expectations.

Resources also picked up during the afternoon session, with a rebound in commodity prices.

The all share index ended 1.49 percent higher, with banks gaining 3.92 percent and financials 1.77 percent. Resources added 1.91 percent, with gold up 3.27 percent and platinum 3.92 percent. Industrials were 0.82 percent firmer.

The rand was bid at 7.76 to the dollar from 7.78 when the JSE closed on Tuesday, while gold was quoted at $827.65 a troy ounce from $828.20 at the JSE's last close. Platinum was last at $1443/oz, from $1429 overnight.

Dow Jones Newswires reports that US stocks moved higher Wednesday, as investors looked favourably on data showing surprisingly strong orders of big-ticket goods throughout the US economy.

However, the industrial sector, which will suffer from increased production costs if fuel remains expensive in the months ahead, was the biggest laggard, off 0.5 percent. The consumer-discretionary sector, which tends to suffer when high pump prices threaten to divert spending on other goods, slipped 0.3 percent.

Crude futures jumped $2.55 to trade near $119 a barrel in New York on concerns that Tropical Storm Gustav may disrupt operations in the Gulf of Mexico, home to a quarter of US crude production.

In economic news, orders for durable goods increased 1.3 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted $219.26-billion, the Commerce Department said early Wednesday. Some of the jump was due to stronger demand for aircraft but, even excluding transportation sector bookings, all other orders rose 0.7 percent.

Traders also digested fresh comments from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart, who predicted in a speech Wednesday morning at Georgia State University's business school that inflation would ease in coming months, calling recent price rises "more likely to be transitory than persistent."

On the JSE, resources giant Anglo American added 2.48 percent to 413 rand and BHP Billiton gained 1.25 percent to 243.50 rand.

Synthetic fuels maker Sasol also collected three rand to 417 rand.

Gold miner AngloGold Ashanti gained a healthy 2.34 percent to 209.80 rand with Gold Fields up by 5.80 percent to 73 rand.

Among platinum miners Anglo Platinum was 15.01 rand to the good at 940 rand while Impala Platinum added 3.69 percent to 225 rand.

Mobile carrier MTN firmed 2.01 rand to 114.01 rand while Telkom was 1.75 rand in the black at 137 rand.

Telkom said on Tuesday that talks are ongoing with a consortium that is considering making an offer for the fixed-line telephone operator.

Telkom recently received a letter from a consortium comprising Mvelaphanda Holdings (Proprietary) Limited, affiliated funds of Och-Ziff Capital Management Group and other strategic funders, stating that it is considering making an offer for the entire issued share capital of Telkom subject to a number of pre-conditions, inter alia, confirmation by the Telkom Board that it will unbundle Telkom's entire 50 percent stake in Vodacom as part of the offer.

Brewer SABMiller lost 1.8 percent to 160.90 rand and Richemont dipped by 1.13 percent to 43.70 rand. Remgro eked out 180 cents to 186.05 rand.

Banking group Standard Bank collected 3.53 percent to 88 rand and Nedbank gained a healthy 3.74 percent to 105 rand. Absa added 3.14 percent to 105.90 rand while FirstRand gained 5.64 percent to 16.10 rand.

Short-term insurer Santam slipped five cents to 74.95 rand. Bemoaning a challenging first six months of 2008, it on Wednesday reported an 89 percent drop in diluted headline earnings per share from 793 cents to 88 cents for the half-year.

The group said that from an underwriting perspective, growth and underwriting profit in southern Africa were satisfactory. Overall earnings for the group were however well below the 2007 levels, mainly attributable to poor investment results.

Construction group Murray & Roberts gained 6.11 percent on the day to 102.50 rand. The company earlier reported a 69 percent jump to 550 cents in diluted headline earnings per share for the year ended June, beating an I-Net Bridge consensus forecast of 504.5 cents from nine analysts. A final distribution of 119 cents was declared – up 68 percent on the same time last year.

I-Net Bridge