Global stocks dropped on Monday while the US dollar rallied as investors weighed up concerns that the US Federal Reserve will continue to ramp up interest rate hikes to combat growing inflation.
During morning trade the rand weakened to R17.09/$ – its weakest level in a month – before clawing back to R17.02/$ by midday before erasing more of its losses to trade at R16.99 versus the dollar by 5pm.
The JSE’s All Share Index was trading flat by midday before briefly strengthening during early afternoon trade and ultimately closing 0.75% down at 69,196 points.
Telkom added 2.20% after it confirmed it was still in takeover negotiations with MTN.
Previously the telecoms peers said negotiations were in an early stage with no certainty they would be concluded while Monday’s statement indicated that talks between the two were ongoing.
MTN lost 0.76% while rival Vodacom added 0.42%.
In other company news, Sun International (2.67%) said it expected a good recovery when it releases its interim financial results next week. The group said it expected headline earnings per share for the six months to the end of June to improve by more than 100% compared with the corresponding prior period.
Profit is expected to be between 83 cents and 101 cents per share.
