Rand falls as Fitch also cuts South Africa rating to ‘junk’
Stocks down led by banking and resource shares
South Africa’s rand slipped on Friday after a second ratings agency, Fitch, downgraded the country’s credit status to “junk” on economic uncertainty the previous week’s sacking of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.
Bank and resource stocks also succumbed to that pressure.
By 4 p.m. the rand was down 0.3% at 13.7975 per dollar, less of a fall than expected as the greenback wavered following weak jobs data.
The rand has fallen more than 11% since March 27, when President Jacob Zuma recalled Gordhan from an investor roadshow to Britain and the United States.
On Friday, the Bank of Israel set its representative rate for the South African rand at NIS 0.2658.
“Either the market has fully priced-in the downgrades or it believes that this is good for the country and that it might eventually see President Zuma forced out of office,” Nedbank senior economist Isaac Mashego said.
Fitch on Friday followed S&P Global Ratings and downgraded South Africa to “junk”, citing Gordhan’s dismissal as one reason. S&P had issued its downgrade on South Africa in an unscheduled review on Monday.
Following the downgrades, J.P. Morgan said it would drop South Africa from its investment-grade emerging market bond indexes by late April.
The ratings agency moves are likely to force international tracker funds, or funds prohibited from holding sub-investment grade securities, to sell South African assets.
On the bourse, the benchmark Top-40 index fell 0.18% to 46,085 points while the All-Share index dipped 0.12% to 52,853 points.
The mining index fell 0.58% on the back of weaker iron ore prices, while the banking index fell 0.39% after the Fitch downgrade.
“The iron ore price is down quite a bit, so sentiment towards these resource shares is a little weaker,” Cratos Capital equities trader Greg Davies said.
Among the biggest fallers, ArcelorMittal fell 7.30% to 9.65 rand, Kumba Iron Ore dropped 4.19% to 214.65 and African Rainbow Minerals lowered 2.79% to 100.61. Losses were curbed by gains in gold miners’ shares, which benefited from bullion prices climbing to five-month highs.
Goldfields rose 6.30% to 53.00 rand and AngloGold Ashanti climbed 3.84% to 170.81.
In the fixed income market, bond prices were firmer on the day as high yields attracted some buying. Benchmark yields on bonds due in 2026 dropped 9 basis points to 8.93%.