The JSE continued its losing streak on Thursday, closing in the red for a fourth consecutive session, losing 0.47%.
The All Share Index is sitting at 74,008 points.
Supermarket retailer Pick ‘n Pay surged 5.84% today after recently posting a 5% increase in sales growth for the year ended February 2022. The retailer’s clothing business has seen 21% growth while the liquor business has grown by more than 57%.
Emerging market currencies were under pressure today based on hawkish US Feb minutes and commentary with renewed strength in the US dollar over the past few days driven mainly on the back of the market pricing in the possibility of a 300bps hike by the FOMC during the course of 2022.
The rand opened at R14.67/$ but slipped throughout the day and is currently trading at R14.75/$.
“We feel the R14.80 handle will be a difficult level to break, but a sustained break above this mark could leave the rand open to further weakness towards R15.00,” comments TreasuryONE.
On the commodity front, gold is building a stable range between $1,920 and $1,950 with the precious metal changing hands at around $1,930 during afternoon trade. Platinum is slightly down while palladium has shot up around 2% after some weakness over the last few sessions.
Brent crude oil dipped towards the $100 a barrel mark through the night but strengthened slightly this afternoon. If Brent does break below the $100 mark, it could retreat to levels last seen in February before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, comments TreasuryONE.
