Rand extends gains

THE RAND yesterday extended Tuesday’s gains, trading between R13.14 and 13.32 to the dollar, bolstered by news of positive deals made at the on-going BRICS Summit.

TreasuryOne director and head of dealing, Wichard Cilliers, said apart from the $14.7 billion (about R198bn) in investments pledged to South Africa by China, Eskom was granted a substantial loan of more than R30bn and discussions were held between the two countries to try and rebalance trade through the boosting of South African exports.

“President (Cyril) Ramaphosa has been busy and it showed at the BRICS summit… when some significant deals for the economy were agreed to. This helped the ZAR trade stronger on the day,” he said.

By 5pm, the domestic currency had rallied 17c compared with the same time on Tuesday to R13.21 a dollar.

Against the pound, the rand was 11c firmer at R17.38 and to the euro, the currency strengthened 14c to R15.43.

Peregrine Treasury Solutions corporate treasury manager, Bianca Botes, said the rally in the rand seemed to have reached its top, but some momentum that could see it break below R13.30 would open the playing field to R13.10.

“Bear in mind that, structurally, the economy faces severe difficulty and optimism in terms of further currency strength should be applied objectively. All things considered, these are fairly good levels at which to purchase dollars,” she said.

Meanwhile, JSE stocks took a beating with the blue chip Top40 index declining 1.31 percent to 50 321.55 points, while the broader all share index inched up 1.17 percent to 56 387.87 points.

Among the biggest losers were Investec Plc, which dropped 3.69 percent to R93.80, followed by Investec Ltd, which gave up 3.25 percent to R93.26.

Naspers declined 3.21 percent to R3 310.13, while Distell dropped 3.19 percent to R133.50 and Mediclinic was 2.95 percent lower to close at R89.22.

Among leading gainers were Sanlam, which racked up 1.94 percent to R73.13, followed by AngloGold Ashanti, which was1.85 percent higher at R108.50.

Tsogo Sun added 1.84 percent to R21.04, while Vodacom ticked up 1.72 percent to R127.67.

Anglo American Platinum scored 1.23 percent gains to end the session at R390.34.