No rest for the rand on Women’s Day

The rand weakened fairly sharply during Thursday’s Women’s Day public holiday to R13.72 from R13.36 to the dollar, and was trading at R13.67 to the dollar on Friday morning.

The rand was trading at R15.77 to the euro and R17.55 to the pound at 6.30am.

The South African currency may be suffering along with the Turkish lira, which fell to a fresh record low against the dollar on Friday morning.

Reuters reported that a Turkish delegation met US officials in Washington on Wednesday to address friction between the Nato allies. There were no immediate signs of a breakthrough, however, from the hour-long talks after the delegation returned on Thursday.

Japan’s second-quarter GDP growth showing faster economic growth than expected failed to lift a gloomy mood in markets on Friday morning.

Tokyo’s Topix index was down 0.64% despite Japan’s quarterly GDP growth rate of 0.5%, a rebound from the first quarter’s 0.2% contraction and better than the economists’ consensus of 0.3%.

Asian markets took their cue from Wall Street where the S&P 500 index closed 0.14% lower on Thursday.

In Hong Kong, Naspers’s main asset Tencent was down 1.18% to HK$368.20, contributing to the Hang Seng index losing 0.46%.

In Sydney, the ASX 200 index was down 0.16%, with BHP down 0.12% to A$33.92.

JSE-listed companies that may release results on Friday include real estate investment trust Fortress, Pembury Lifestyle Group and Randgold & Exploration.