RAND FALLS ON MOODY’S MOVE

THE RAND weakened yesterday, as ratings agency Moody’s cut its forecast for the country’s economic growth due to lacklustre private sector demand at home and power cuts.

At 5pm, the rand bid at R15.0129 to the dollar, 17 cents softer than at the same time on Friday.

Moody’s cut its 2020 gross domestic product growth forecast to 0.7 percent from a forecast of 1.5 percent set in September, due in part to the detrimental impact of widespread power outages on manufacturing and mining activity.

Moody’s is the last of the major international agencies to keep an investment grade rating on the sovereign and is scheduled to review that assessment in March.

President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged in his annual address to parliament on Thursday that growth had stalled, promising to fix its strained public finances and procure more renewable energy to address a power crisis.

Government debt weakened, with the yield on the benchmark bond due in 2030 adding 5 basis points to 8.9 percent.

On the bourse, stocks were lifted by a positive earnings report from Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) and Friday’s trading statement from Sibanye-Stillwater.

The JSE all share index gained 0.56 percent at 58 187.96 points, while the Top40 index climbed 0.59 percent to 52 357.57 points

Amplats, which also has operations in Zimbabwe, jumped 5.43 percent to R1329.99 after it said higher metal prices had driven its annual headline earnings per share nearly two-and-a-half times higher at R70.87 versus R28.93 a year earlier.

Sibanye continued to surge after saying on Friday it expected to swing to a R433 million profit in the year ended December, against a R2.5 billion loss in 2018, due to significantly higher platinum group metals and gold prices and the inclusion of Lonmin’s Marikana operations.

The miner surged to a three-and-ahalf year high, advancing 5.89 percent at R44.58. I Reuters