Rand, bourse post losses

THE RAND was weaker yesterday on lingering ecomnomic weakness highlighted by the country’s current account deficit and business confidence data.

At 5pm, the rand bid at R14.6546 to the dollar, 8 cents softer than at the same time on Wednesday.

Data from the central bank yesterday showed the country’s current account deficit had narrowed slightly but less than expected, while a measure of monthly business confidence showed businesses are still struggling with the tough economic climate and slack demand.

Earlier in the week, a reading from the statistics agency showed the economy shrank 0.6 percent in the third quarter, raising concerns that the country could lose its last investment-grade credit rating from Moody’s.

Bonds were broadly flat, with the yield on the benchmark 2026 bond at 8.43 percent.

In equities, the benchmark JSE Top40 index slipped 0.45 percent to 48589.71 points while the broader all share index was down 0.44 percent at 54779.76 points.

“You’ve got this mood of uncertainty still as to how things are going to be fixed with (power company) Eskom and what could be done to get the economy kick-started,” said Ferdi Heyneke, portfolio manager at Afrifocus Securities.

Eskom implemented further power cuts yesterday after a number of generating units broke down.

Services, trading, and distribution group Bidvest dropped 2.17 percent to R192.70 while retailer Mr Price Group declined 1.88 percent to R179.60.

Preventing further losses were resource shares, with platinum miner Impala up 3.84 percent at R127.20.

Gold Fields gained 3.14 percent to R87.46, helped partly by stronger gold prices.

Meanwhile, emerging market assets strengthened yesterday amid some optimism over the prospects for a “phase-one” Sino-US trade deal, although a raft of mixed signals earlier in the week kept gains constrained. I Reuters