Rand rises as protests gather pace

The rand strengthened for a second consecutive day on Wednesday as the anti-Zuma campaign gathered momentum. Opposition parties held more marches, demanding President Jacob Zuma step down after two leading credit ratings agencies revised SA’s sovereign credit to junk.

The JSE ended the day flat, while miners gave back some of their recent gains on the stronger local currency.

In evening trade, the rand was at R13.65/$, from Tuesday’s R13.83. The benchmark R186 bond was last bid at 8.87%, from 8.93% previously.

The JSE all share ended the day 0.03% higher at 53,351.3 points, with the banking index standing out, gaining 3.09%. The sector has been under strain since S&P Global Ratings and Fitch downgraded SA’s debt to subinvestment grade.

General retailers rose 1.89%, financials 1.42% and property 1.36%. Platinums fell 4.61% and resources 2.69%.

Anglo American retreated 4.97%, to R199.52 and BHP Billiton 3.89%, to R217.78.

Sasol gained 1.43%, to R416.16. The chemical conglomerate has insured itself against rand/dollar volatility in 2018 by buying contracts allowing it to swap rand for up to $4bn at a rate of between R13.46/$ and R15.51/$.

Kumba Iron Ore fell 7.58%, to R189. Rand hedge British American Tobacco lost 1.22%, to R918.99.

Remgro jumped 3.1% to R216 after gaining more than 2% on Tuesday.

PSG was one of the better performers, rising 6.98% to R249.24 after the investment company said it expected annual headline earnings per share growth of 50%. Sibanye lost 2.61%, to R33.26. Standard Bank was the best performer among the big banks, rebounding 3.83%, to R143.49 from oversold levels.

MMI added 3.64%, to R22.80 and Liberty 3.32%, to R106.36.

Mr Price added 3.65%, to R153.40 and Woolworths 1.97%, to R69.75.

Futures ended flat, with the neardated Alsi futures index closing at 47,262 points.