Morning report (5.5)

It seems as if the Fifa technical report gave some much-needed mojo to local equity markets, or was it the weaker currency, says Nico Kelder, economist at the Efficient Group.

Local equities gained more than one percent yesterday while the currency weakened against the euro and pound but strengthened against the dollar. The dollar lost more than 1% against the euro.

Commodities rose on the back of the weaker dollar, oil gained more than 4% as fears of increased conflict in the Middle East flamed up - again.

Internationally markets were flat except for the FTSE, which had to play catch up after their public holiday on Monday.

The Nikkei is still closed because of a public holiday and missing the drop (-1%) that the Hang Seng is experiencing so far this morning. We expect local equities to trade higher today.