SA rand gains

JOHANNESBURG. —The rand continued to strengthen yesterday morning, trading at 12,90 to the dollar at 6.45am.

Besides the fillip it received on Friday after the government agreed to rethink its Mining Charter, the rand benefited from the dollar weakening against most currencies on Monday after US President Donald Trump’s healthcare bill failed its second attempt at Senate approval.

The JSE achieved its sixth trading day of gains on Monday, with the all share index rising 0,43 percent. An 11 percent jump in Netflix’s share price in afterhours trade on Nasdaq failed to cheer Asian markets yesterday morning. Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 index was down 1,05 percent, Shanghai’s composite index 0,66 percent and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 0,55 percent.

Netflix reported it cracked the 100-million subscriber barrier, with most of its growth coming from outside the US. Its revenue grew 32 percent to $2,78bn and net profit grew 61 percent to $66bn.

Although a flurry of corporate results are scheduled for the US and Europe, only retail sales updates are expected from JSE-listed companies this week.

Massmart reported on Monday that sales excluding new stores fell 1,6 percent during the first half of its 2017 financial year, “caused by weak consumer spending, especially on discretionary items, and low consumer confidence”. Woolworths similarly complained of “increasingly difficult trading conditions, in both SA and Australasia” in a sales update in released on July 13. — BDLive.