The big news that Russia will withdraw some of its troops from the outskirts of Kyiv and other cities as Ukraine and Russia continue peace talks in Turkey saw emerging market currencies rally on the back of the news.
The rand strengthened to R14.52/$ and could test the R14.40/$ level again.
“Today’s best performing EM currency has been the Russian Ruble, which has gained 7% on the day. This is expected given the big news of the day,” says TreasuryONE.
Given the lockdown situation in China and the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, commodities did have a tough day. Most commodities are trading in the red, with gold currently trading at $1,910, after dipping to $1,890 earlier. Platinum is trading at $971 and palladium at $2,092 per ounce. Brent crude is down by 3% and currently trading at $108.96 per barrel.
On the South African economy front, we have seen the biggest unemployment number in the history of South Africa as the unemployment rate rose above 35%, printing at 35.4%.
On the JSE, the bourse closed with a small 0.78% gain with the All Share Index on 74,776%
Absa (0.19%) finally has a permanent CEO, almost a year after Daniel Mminele quit as the bank’s chief executive. Arrie Rautenbach will immediately assume the CEO role, taking over from interim CEO Jason Quinn who will return to his former role as financial director with Absa. Rautenbach has been with Absa since 1997 and is currently the chief executive of retail and business banking.
He is the first internal CEO appointment since 2006 when Maria Ramos took the job.
Banking peers Standard Bank (2.42%), Nedbank (1.03%), Investec (1.57%), FirstRand (1.50%), and Capitec (3.06%) all traded in the green.
In a trading update for the five months to end February, Nampak said strong volume growth for beverage cans helped revenues to increase by more than 20% with Bevcan Nigeria also performing strongly and contributing to Nampak’s improved financial results for the period.
The group said it had strong growth in its plastics division too, driven by its Zimbabwean operations.
Despite the good financials, Nampak shares slumped 6.95% while packaging and paper manufacturing peers Mpact and Mondi added 0.85% and 2.21% respectively.
In a separate trading update for the five months to end February, Barloworld said its revenue and operating profit increased by double digits compared to the previous year’s financials.
The results come despite the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and sanctions against Russia. Barloworld derives 20% of its revenue from its Russian operations.
The share price surged 9.24% on the back of the good results.
