The Sunday News
SOUTH Africa’s rand fell yesterday, tracking the euro lower after the European Central Bank pushed back its forecast for an interest rate hike and offered banks more cheap loans, while at home state power utility Eskom got smaller tariff hikes than sought.
Stocks weakened as market heavyweight Naspers came under pressure despite a jump in MTN’s shares, which led gainers across the bourse, after reporting a surge in annual profit. At 1530 GMT, the rand was 1,44 percent weaker at 14.4750 per dollar, compared to a close of 14.2700 on Wednesday. The European Central Bank changed tack on its tightening plan on Thursday, pushing out the timing of its first post-crisis rate hike until 2020 at the earliest and offering banks a new round of cheap loans to help revive the euro zone economy.
ALL SHARE
The All Share index closed the week in red after losing a marginal 0.01 points (0,01 percent) to close at 141.93 points. TSL dropped $0,1600 to close at $0,6400, Delta lost $0,0549 to close at $2,5486 and Econet eased $0,0186 to end at $1,3294. Axia traded $0,0166 weaker at $0,4000 and Simbisa decreased by $0,0097 to $0,7103.
Three counters gained ground as Cassava Smartech added $0,0696 to settle at $1,4500, CBZ traded $0,0150 stronger at $0,1600 and Padenga increased by $0,0080 to $0,9800.
