eBusiness Weekly
The rand was back over R12 to the dollar on Tuesday morning as the hope of ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa replacing President Jacob Zuma before the February 8 state of the nation address faded.
The rand was trading at R12.02 to the dollar, R14.87 to the euro and R16.88 to the pound at 7am.
The JSE top 40 index, which closed 1.22% lower on Monday, looked set to continue its slide on Tuesday judging by Asian markets and futures contracts.
The closing price of the top 40 spot futures contract on Monday pointed to the index declining 1.27% on Tuesday.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index was down 1.58%, Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 index was down 0.81%, and Wellington’s NZX 50 index was down 0.35%.
Eskom, whose bonds face suspension on the JSE for failing to release its results for the year to end-September within three months, said it would publish its delayed financial statements on Tuesday — the day before the JSE’s final deadline.
Eskom’s results are expected to include an emphasis of matter from its auditors saying the state-owned power utility fails the going concern test of having sufficient current assets to cover its current liabilities.
The Reserve Bank is scheduled to release December’s money supply and private sector credit extension figures at 8am on Tuesday.
Investec Bank economist Kamilla Kaplan said in her weekly note e-mailed on Friday that she expected private sector credit extension growth to have slowed to 6% in December from 6.5% in November. – BusinessLive
