Rand flirting with R14/$, JSE miners could have another good day

The rand, which weakened nearly 50c to flirt with R14 to the dollar on Wednesday, was trading at R13.85 to the dollar on Thursday morning.

The South African currency was trading at R16.02 to the euro and R18.17 to the pound at 6.30am.

Banks and retailers suffered from the rand’s 3% slump on Wednesday while miners benefited.

The JSE’s banking index fell 2.83%, led lower by Barclays Group Africa, which lost 3.9%.

The food and drug retailers’ index fell 3.44%, with Shoprite losing 5.74% to R211.98 and Clicks 5.13% to R192.82.

The resources 10 index rose 2.83%, with BHP gaining 4% to R304.22.

In Sydney, BHP was up a further 1.8% to A$33.82 ahead of the JSE’s opening, indicating Thursday may be another good day for miners.

In Hong Kong, Tencent was up 1% to HK$381.20, indicating Naspers may continue Wednesday’s rebound. Naspers closed 2.57% higher at R3,177.99, recovering some of Monday’s and Tuesday’s losses.

Cement maker Sephaku is scheduled to release its results for the year to end-March on Thursday.

Sephaku said in a trading statement on June 20 that it expected to report headline earnings per share (HEPS) declined by up to 40%.

Sephaku said “excessive rainfall” in the first half of its financial year contributed to Dangote Cement contributing a R16m interim loss. Dangote turned to a profit of R74m profit in the second half.

Statistics SA is scheduled to release May’s producer price index (PPI) at 11.30am.

Farm and factory gate inflation, as measured by the annual change in PPI, is expected to have remained at April’s 4.4%, according to a poll of economists done by Trading Economics.