Calm day expected after a traumatic week

Asian markets were buoyant on Friday morning, indicating the JSE may continue Thursday’s rebound, when the all share index gained 1.65% to 56,562 points.

In Hong Kong, Naspers’s 31%-owned Tencent was up 3.25% to HK$336.40 on Friday.

The rand was trading at R14.64 to the dollar, R16.67 to the euro and R18.63 to the pound early on Friday morning.

After a traumatic week — which started with the rand breaching R15 to the dollar in the early hours of Monday and Naspers crashing 10% on Wednesday — Friday will hopefully be quiet, with little diarised.

Real estate investment trust Resilient said on its website it will release its 2018 financial year results on Friday.

Resilient, which tends to release its results after 5pm, has not released a trading statement, indicating earnings will be within 20% of the prior year’s.

The property group’s share price fell from over R150 in December to about R50 in March following criticism that it used money loaned to an education trust, Siyakha, to prop up the share prices of itself and sibling Reits Fortress, NEPI Rockcastle and Greenbay.

Resilient issued restated interim results in May, accounting for Siyakha as a subsidiary, causing the parent company’s liabilities to increase by R6.8bn to include a R3.6bn loan Siyakha had received from Fortress and the education trust’s R3.2bn bank borrowings.

The Washington-based Institute of International Finance (IIF) reported that of $1.3bn pulled out of emerging markets this week, SA accounted for $600m, making it the most severely hit, Reuters reported on Thursday.

SA’s reliance on portfolio debt and equity flows to finance its large and widening current account deficit made it especially vulnerable, the IIF said.

“Nearly 80% of foreign investor flows to SA since 2015 have been in the form of portfolio investment — buying assets like bonds or shares. Direct investment, such as building a factory, accounted for less than 10% of total inflows,” Reuters reported.