Business

5 things you need to know before trading starts today

Staff Writer

 ·20 Apr 2016

Here’s what is happening in the markets:

• Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane was dogged by heckles of “Where are the Guptas” during his budget vote speech in Parliament on Tuesday. Zwane has been accused of being too close to the controversial family, after he joined them on a trip to Switzerland during negotiations to buy Glencore’s Optimum colliery. He is head of a portfolio that manages South Africa’s estimated R50 trillion in mineral wealth.

• Emerging markets are back in favour among investors, and that is good news for the rand. On Tuesday the currency strengthened to levels before the dreaded “9/12”, where president Jacob Zuma fired the country’s finance minister, sending the economy into a tailspin, wiping as much as R500 billion in the process. According to economists, the rand has been “severely undervalued” over the past few months, and is now returning to normal levels.

• South Africa’s rand rose to its firmest in four months and stocks gained on Tuesday as increased risk appetite lifted emerging markets. On Wednesday, the currency was trading at R14.36 to the dollar, R20.61 to the pound and R16.31 to the euro.

• In global news, All the air was sucked out of Asian shares on Wednesday as oil prices took a fresh spill on news Kuwaiti oil workers ended a three-day strike, leaving markets suddenly directionless. The S&P 500 climbed closer to a record high on Tuesday, lifted by energy stocks and a solid quarterly report from Johnson & Johnson.

• Crude futures fell on Wednesday after Kuwaiti oil workers ended a three-day strike that had cut production from the Middle Eastern country, and data showed U.S. stockpiles rose last week. Aftershocks have rattled survivors of deadly Japanese earthquakes, nearly a week after the first one struck. So far 47 lives have been lost due to the disaster, with more expected to follow due to follow-on illnesses.

In other news: The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has revealed how much each political party will be getting to contend this year’s Municipal Elections, with the ANC taking the lion’s share of the budget, gaining R79.4 million.