5 things you need to know before trading starts today
·6 May 2016
Here’s what is happening in the markets:
- Directors of state-owned military and defence group Denel has hit back at finance minister Pravin Gordhan for publicly calling the group “belligerent”. The group has accused the minister of breaking a deal to resolve the matter behind closed doors. Denel is in the finmin’s cross-hairs for allegedly skipping needed approvals when dealing with a Gupta-owned company.
- Barclays says that its sale of a 12% stake in Barclays Africa (Absa) has gone extremely well, with the group getting R13.1 billion from the stake. The 103.6 million shares were sold at a 6.5% discount, with Barclays still retaining 50.1% of its stake. Speculation is rife that a consortium led by former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond has put in a bid for the remaining stake.
- South Africa’s rand firmed against the dollar in volatile Thursday trade which earlier saw it touch 4-week lows as corporate import demand offset the boost from a generally risk-favourable global environment. Stocks ended slightly higher, with a recovery in oil prices lifting resource shares. On Friday the rand was trading at R15.00 to the dollar, R21.71 to the pound and R17.12 to the euro.
- In global news, Asian shares wallowed at one-month lows on Friday as investors braced for the US April payrolls report after jobless claims data out earlier raised doubts over the seemingly rosy employment picture. US stocks gave up early gains to end flat on Thursday as consumer discretionary shares fell and investors showed caution ahead of the April jobs report.
- Oil prices dipped on Friday, dragged down by a surging dollar that at least temporarily outweighed supply disruptions in North America, where a massive wildfire was threatening Canada’s huge oil sands operations. Brent crude futures were trading at $44.73 per barrel, while US crude futures at $44.04.
In other news: President Jacob Zuma has called the behaviour of Parliament an embarrassment, and has called on House Speaker Baleka Mbete to do more to bring order to the National Assembly. Zuma faced a barrage of insults from opposition parties on Wednesday during his budget vote speech. Parties boycotted the president’s reply on Thursday.
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