JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand was little changed near 10-month highs on Thursday and gains in the benchmark stock index were limited by losses for Old Mutual shares after weak results and news of a possible delay to its break-up.
The currency traded 0.1 percent higher at 13.292 to the dollar. It has gained about 5 percent in the last week after local government elections saw opposition parties make inroads into the ruling African National Congress' majority.
But momentum indicators show it has strayed into overbought territory and analysts warn that the election outcome could herald populist policy changes and potential ratings downgrades.
"We expect risk aversion to come back. It's a very uncertain economic environment and there is a chance the ratings agencies could flag policy direction after the election," Nedbank senior economist Johannes Khoza said.
"So we don't expect the strength of the rand to be sustained into the second half of the year." On the bourse, the Top-40 index inched up 0.16 percent to 45,205 points while the broader all-share ticked up 0.2 percent to 52,321 points. Old Mutual shares fell 4.32 percent to 37.19 rand as first half profits disappointed and with the company citing challenging conditions in its core market. It also said an investigation by Britain's Financial Conduct Authority may delay its planned division into four units.
"The market to some extent was disappointed, they have come under a bit of pressure," Independent Securities senior trader, Ryan Woods, said. Volumes were thin with about 220 million shares changing hands, compared with last year's daily average of 280 million.
In the debt market, the yield on 2026 benchmark government bond was down 2.5 basis points to 8.43 percent.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.