Precious metal?

Highveld Steel and Vanadium (+2.26%) and Illovo (-3.14%) were the big movers on the up- and downside on the bourse (-0.45%) yesterday.

According to Stefan van Rooyen at the Efficient Group, the banking (-0.92%) and IT (-1.74%) indices took huge knocks and closed deep in the red. The currency market are waiting for the US trade data due today, traders are expecting a deficit of $59bn.

The rand held its ground against the major currencies and took 4 cents from the euro and pound. The current cost pressure and lower rand gold (+0.33%) price is obscuring South Africa’s golden sunset.

According to the South African Chamber of Mines last year’s gold production reached its lowest level since 1931, only 342.7 tonnes were produced. The oil (+0.30%) price traded steady yesterday. US equity markets closed 0.16% lower yesterday on lower volume investors are waiting for the trade data today.

The FTSE 100 (-0.21%) lost the most value on the European front; Tesco rose on positive sentiment ahead of tomorrow’s fiscal year results. Currently the Nikkei 225 (-0.71%) is down as technology issues are being sold. We do not expect that the mining data due out today should have any significant influence on local equity trading.