{"id":265203,"date":"2018-08-15T14:11:09","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T12:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=265203"},"modified":"2018-08-15T14:22:58","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T12:22:58","slug":"rand-sinks-again-this-time-by-naspers-and-moodys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/265203\/rand-sinks-again-this-time-by-naspers-and-moodys\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand sinks again – this time it’s Naspers and Moody’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa\u2019s rand headed for its biggest drop against the dollar since 2016, buffeted by headwinds including a downbeat assessment of the economy by Moody\u2019s Investors Service and a plunge in the biggest company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n

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The currency sank as much as 3.4% against the dollar after Moody\u2019s said the pace of South Africa\u2019s fiscal consolidation will be slower than government forecasts as weaker-than-expected economic growth and a rising public sector wage bill act as fiscal headwinds.<\/p>\n

The statement came shortly after central bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said growth projections were \u201cworrying\u201d and hinted policy makers aren\u2019t about to raise rates.<\/p>\n

A drop in commodity prices and concerns about the government\u2019s plan to seize land for redistribution also weighed on the rand at a time when Turkey\u2019s woes are damping investor demand for emerging-market assets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a combination of factors,\u201d said Warrick Butler, a currency trader at Standard Bank Group Ltd. \u201cTake your pick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naspers, which accounts for 18% of the benchmark stock index, tumbled after Tencent Holdings Ltd., in which it owns a 31% stake, missed earnings estimates. That raised concerns about outflows from the stock market. The benchmark index of equities fell the most since May.<\/p>\n

The rand was 3.1% weaker at R14.6931 per dollar by 1:41 p.m. in Johannesburg, bringing its decline this month to 9.7%.<\/p>\n

Yields on benchmark 2026 government bonds climbed 10 basis points to 9.04%.<\/p>\n

\u201cFactors that have harmed the currency today includes news from Turkey, which points to a deepening of the crisis there, despite the lira\u2019s bounce back today,\u201d said Andre Cilliers, a trader at TreasuryOne Ltd.<\/p>\n

On the domestic front, a statement by the ruling African National Congress on land expropriation \u201cput property rights back in focus and all the uncertainty that comes with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

South Africa must amend its constitution to limit land ownership to 12,000 hectares per farm owner and white farmers who own more than that should cede the rest to the state without compensation, News24 said, citing ANC chairman Gwede Mantashe.<\/p>\n

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Read: How South Africa\u2019s billionaires were hit by the latest rand crash<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa\u2019s rand headed for its biggest drop against the dollar since 2016, buffeted by headwinds including a downbeat assessment of the economy by Moody\u2019s Investors Service and a plunge in the biggest company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":213869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26,107,499],"class_list":["post-265203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline","tag-naspers","tag-standard-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265203"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265213,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265203\/revisions\/265213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}