We begin with a look at the rand, which traded sideways for most of the day with the local unit trading in a narrow 8 cent range.
The dollar was on the front foot for most of the day but despite this, the rand had a slight strengthening bias.
“This shows us that the move was down to a weaker euro rather than a stronger US dollar.
We expect the rand to trade sideways up until the FOMC minutes that will be released on Wednesday. We expect the rand to stay within the broader R14.40/80 range in the short term, with a change in global sentiment needed to shake it out of the range,” comments forex trading house TreasuryONE.
On the commodity front, a sideways bias also entered the commodity market with most commodities showing small moves today.
Gold is trading at $1,932, platinum at $985, and palladium at $2,292. Brent crude is the most significant mover in the commodity space, as more sanctions are expected from the Eurozone on Russia. Brent is currently trading at $107.71, up from its starting point of $103 a barrel.
On the stock market, the JSE spent most of the day in the green before the bourse lost its footing before the close of trade, losing a small 0.10% with the All Share Index settling on 75,835 points
Tharisa (1.65%) announced it had appointed mining veteran Bernard Pryor as head of Karo Mining Holdings after the company increased its stake in Karo Holdings to 66.3%.
Pryor comes with an extensive 35-year experience as a metallurgical engineer and has held senior executive positions across a range of disciplines as well as running large-scale operational mining assets.
Some of the big movers today included Woolworths (4.16%), Naspers (4.05%), Prosus (2.96%), while Thungela surged 7.77%.
Woolworths said on Monday that it was committed to turning around its flailing David Jones business amid a report in The Australian that the South African retailer was getting ready to sell the David Jones business altogether.
Woolies acquired David Jones in 2014 for R21.4 billion in a move that seemed to signal Woolworth’s intention to be a global player in the Southern hemisphere but since acquiring the brand there have been write-downs and losses for the group.
In the latest financial statements for the year ended December 2021 turnover declined by 9.2% while sales slumped by 9%.
The big losers today were Steinhoff (-3.58%), Gold Fields (-3.41%), Harmony (-3.24%), and Textainer (-2.99%)
On the international front, SA-born Tesla chief executive Elon Musk purchased a 9.2% stake in social media giant Twitter, becoming one of the largest shareholders.
Shares surged as much as 26% pre-market on the back of the news and were up 25.43% on the New York Stock Exchange at the time of writing.
