Morning report – history repeats?

Exactly like Friday, the strong currency pushed local equities lower by 0.7%.

As has been the case during strong rand periods resources suffers the most and yesterday the index lost 1.1%.

The currency reached its best level in 10 weeks yesterday when it traded a little below R/$6.30 making gains across the board with the largest gain against sterling.

Bond yields reacted positively to the stronger currency and improved by 1%. Oil declined by almost 3-percent yesterday while gold was 0.3% weaker but platinum gained 0.7%.

International equities closed weaker with the US recording the largest loss (-0.43%). The Nikkei is trading lower this morning while the Hang Seng is closed.

We expect the movements of the currency to continue to dominate trading on local markets.