On Monday, the South African rand got a little bit stronger against a weak US dollar. This came after a week of losses that left it at its lowest level in a year.
At 15:06 GMT, the rand was worth 18.3925 dollars per dollar, which was about 0.2% more than the last close. At 18.4850 on Friday, it hit a 2023 low. USD is down about 0.5% compared to a group of global currencies. It has fallen from a seven-week high that was driven by US strength. See what the economy was like last week.
Monday saw no important economic news from South Africa. On Tuesday, we’ll get information about January’s money supply (ZAM3=ECI), trade (ZATBAL=ECI), budget (ZABUDM=ECI), and the unemployment rate for the fourth quarter (ZAUNR=ECI).
The Financial Action Task Force, which makes rules for fighting money laundering and illegal financing, put South Africa on its “grey list” on Friday. This is a blow to the reputation of Africa’s most advanced economy.
Analysts, though, said that markets quickly forgot about the news.
The top 40 index (.JTOPI) was down about 0.9% at the end of the day, while the broadest index of all stocks (.JALSH) was down 0.75 percent.
Steinhoff (SNHJ.J) led the gains, with its shares going up more than 40%. On Friday, the retail holding group said that sales for the quarter that ended in December went up by more than 10%.
“We don’t think markets will continue to overreact to the gray list, since much of this bad news has already been priced in,” said Adriaan Pask, Chief Investment Officer of PSG Wealth.
South African Government Benchmark Bond 2030 was stronger, and the yield went down by 6%.5 basis points to 10.065%.
