Microsoft may help JSE on Friday

The US Federal Reserve Bank has raised interest rates five times since Trump took office in January 2017, and indications of two more US interest rate increases this year sent the rand from R13.26 to nearly R13.60 to the dollar on Thursday.

The rand was trading at R13.57 to the dollar, R15.82 to the euro and R17.67 to the pound at 6.30am.

The latest “Trump slump” saw Tokyo’s Topix index fall 0.7% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index 0.54%, with Tencent down 0.85% to HK$372.40.

The JSE, however, may be rallied by Microsoft. In what Nasdaq terms “after hours trading”, Microsoft’s share price rose 3.26% after releasing better than expected quarterly results.

Microsoft reported 17% revenue growth to $30bn and 10% net income growth to $8.8bn for the quarter.

Investment holding company Sabvest said on July 13 it expected to report on Friday its interim earnings trebled.

Sabvest said it expected both basic and headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the six months to end-June increased to between R3.41 and R3.64 from R1.20 in the matching period.