The beleaguered Rand finally clawed back some of its losses today after nine consecutive days of weakness. The local unit was trading at R15.72/$ at one point and is currently trading at R15.81/$.
“The next couple of trading sessions will establish whether this move was more a case of position squaring before the long weekend and/or if this is a bit of a correction after the currency ran hard the past two weeks,” comments TreasuryONE.
The Rand has found a colleague in the Brazilian Real with the two currencies almost mirror images of one another.
“It is also interesting to note that the Real was one of the worst-performing currencies, along with the Rand, and with both pulling back today, we could have a scenario where some consolidation is ahead,” says TreasuryONE.
It was a good day on the commodity front with all posting gains.
“Palladium was again the star today, with the commodity up more than 2% on the day; however, platinum is up by 1.9% today. Gold is trading at $1,911, platinum at $936, and palladium at $2,283 per ounce. Brent crude is also edging higher at $110.05 per barrel, up by 2.5% today,” comments TreasuryONE.
JSE heavyweights Naspers (7.94%) and Prosus (8.45%) rallied on Friday on the back of hopes that the Chinese tech crackdown would ease. By mid-morning Prosus had surged 10% while Naspers had gained more than 9% after Tencent, in which the pair have a large shareholding, gained 11%.
China’s embattled tech sector received some good news on Friday after news reports said a meeting by the government’s decision-making body concluded with officials saying it was “necessary to promote the healthy development of the platform economy” and “complete its rectification”.
Tech behemoth Alibaba climbed nearly 16% on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
The local bourse built on yesterday’s gains by adding 1.26% to see the All Share Index close at 72,438 points with the Top 40 adding 1.43%.
The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) said it had increased its stake in City Lodge (xxx) to a little over 10%. The hotel group’s share price has increased by 9% over the past year.
