Markets WRAP: Rand closes at R14.74/$

The rand closed at R14.74/$ on Monday.

Here's how the day wrapped up.

USDZAR 14.7400

EURUSD 1.1054

EURZAR 16.2854

GBPUSD 1.2342

GBPZAR 18.1815

AUDZAR 10.1198

CADZAR 11.1950

CNYZAR 2.0683

ZARJPY 7.2693

CHFZAR 14.8739

R186 8.13%

US 10 Year 1.63%

JSE -0.26%

FTSE -0.75%

S&P 500 0.19%

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Oil rises as new Saudi minister signals OPEC+ cuts to continue

Tsuyoshi Inajima and Grant Smith, Bloomberg 

Oil rose for a fourth day after Saudi Arabia’s new energy minister signalled that OPEC and its allies will continue with production cuts as the group prepared to gather in Abu Dhabi.

Futures added 1.2% after climbing 2.6% last week.

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, appointed at the weekend after Saudi King Salman dismissed Khalid Al-Falih, said there will be no radical change in the policy of OPEC+, which has cut crude production this year to prevent a glut and shore up prices.

The United Arab Emirates energy minister promised a push to get all members committed to curbs, but said there’s no recommendation to make deeper reductions.

MTN fined millions after 200% price hike

MTN has been fined R5m – with R2m suspended for three years – after it didn’t give authorities enough warning before it hiked the price of its 1GB Monthly WhatsApp bundles. 

In April last year, MTN lowered the bundle price to R10. It saw a 300% increase in WhatsApp usage in just eight weeks, which it said threatened its 3G network. In July, it hiked the price by R10 to R30.

US stock futures advance amid bets on easing

Bloomberg 

US stock-index futures climbed with equities in Asia on Monday as traders await what they expect will be a series of fresh moves by the world’s central banks to spur growth.

Shares fluctuated in Europe, where bonds declined alongside Treasuries.

Contracts on the three main US stock gauges all pointed to gains at the open, with AT&T leaping in pre-market trading after activist investor Elliott Management outlined a “value-creation” opportunity in a letter to its board.

A dollar gauge continued slipping from Friday, when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stoked expectations of another interest-rate cut at his next policy meeting.

Chinese authorities took several steps to ease financing conditions in the past few days.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index swung between modest losses and gains and euro-area bonds fell as investors showed less conviction that the European Central Bank’s policy meeting Thursday will result in bold steps toward easier policy, and after German exports showed a surprise increase.

The pound climbed after the UK economy grew surprisingly fast in July, holding gains even after an announcement that Parliament will be suspended at the end of Monday’s business.

The owner of Bakers and Five Roses is taking strain, but lower butter, rooibos prices may help

AVI, which owns brands like Bakers, Five Roses, I&J and the shoe retailers Spitz and Green Cross, saw its headline earnings decline by almost 5% in a tough year.

Group revenue for the year to end-June rose by only 1.2%, while cash generated by operations fell by almost 2% to R2.64bn. Net debt at the end of June 2019 was R2.44bn compared to R1.27bn in the previous year.

US, Europe futures edge higher on China stimulus

Adam Haigh and Gregor Stuart Hunter, Bloomberg 

US and European equity futures chalked modest gain as traders weighed further stimulus from China amid weakening economic data. Treasuries and the dollar were little changed.

Asian stocks were mostly higher Monday, with Japanese shares leading gains.

On Friday, the People’s Bank of China said it will cut the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves to the lowest level since 2007, injecting liquidity into the economy.

The yuan dipped. S&P 500 futures ticked higher after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s last speech before next week’s policy meeting cemented views for another interest-rate reduction.

The Naspers dominance of the JSE will reduce this week

The dominance of Naspers over the South African stock market is about to be reduced - partially at least.

And that’s good news for a number of fund managers concerned about the tech giant’s weighting in the main local index.

After Naspers lists its unit Prosus NV in Amsterdam on September 11, the company will drop to about 15% of Johannesburg’s equities benchmark from a massive 21% currently, Peter Takaendesa, a Cape Town-based fund manager, estimates.