Morning report (17.6.04)

Congratulations to all the runners who completed the Comrades!

Nico Kelder says that local equities closed weaker on Tuesday and the currency gained 16c against the dollar.

However, most of these gains have been wiped out yesterday when the currency lost 1% against the dollar and sterling but gained against the euro.

A reason that comes to mind is that the Comrades gold winners were mostly foreigners and the outflow of these winnings may be a reason for the rand loosing ground. A note to the minister of sport; this is a joke, do not ban foreign participants in local sport events.

The dollar strengthened against the euro by more than 1% adding to a lower gold price.

Oil and platinum ignored the stronger dollar, both gaining around 0.5%. European markets closed stronger yesterday (while we had yet another official holiday) while the US markets showed almost no sign of life.

The Far East is trading lower so far this morning losing around 0.5%. We expect equities to recover somewhat after the weakening of the currency yesterday.