MONDAY, 6.00PM:
COLD shivers of doubt pulled down most major indices on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Tuesday, as confusion set in after release of a varied batch of economic figures.
The demons in the digits were marginally better March broad money supply figures and a worse-than-expected private sector credit extension figure.
The South African Reserve Bank pegged March’s M3 at an annualised 15,27% from February’s 18,35%, but private credit extension rose to 14,93% from a previous 13,72%.
Reserve Bank governor Chris Stals was reported as saying some of the data were “disappointing”, but he dismissed the possibility of an imminent interest rate hike.
The all gold index kept its head, remaining unchanged at 1023,1. The industrial index sank 179 to 9761,2, and the financial index 254,9 to 13728,5. The all share index closed at 8123,3, down 140,9.
Bonds weakened after the Reserve Bank bond auction at 11.00am, and the market’s acceptance in the afternoon that the strike price for Thursday’s options close-out is going to be set by the long R153, rather than the medium R150.
The daily repo rate moved down to 14,895%, in a low-demand bid — only R3-billion was bid for the R2,9-billion repos on offer.
The R150 government long bond closed at 12,66%, from Monday’s 12,620%. The R153 closed at 12,97% from 12,920%.
The rand weakened to R5,0585 to the dollar from $5,0560, but strengthened to R8,3996 to the pound from R8,4399.
Gold closed at $304,65 an ounce from an afternoon fix of $302.