Markets WRAP: Rand strengthens by over 1% against dollar in afternoon trade

Rand posts strong gains in late afternoon 

After weakening against the greenback in the early afternoon, the local currency posted strong gains to trade over 1% firmer against the dollar. 

The rand, which opened the day at R14.17/$, was trading 1.18% firmer at at R14.00/$ at 16:54. 

Retired Mediclinic CEO appointed to Capitec board

Danie Meintjes has been nominated for appointment to the boards of Capitec and Capitec Bank, it was announced in a note to Capitec shareholders on Friday.

The appointment will be effective from 28 November 2018.Meintjes served as chief executive officer of the Mediclinic group up to his retirement on June 1, 2018.

He currently serves as a non-executive director on the board of Mediclinic International.

Fitch confirms ratings of SA's major banks at notch below investment grade

Ratings agency Fitch has kept the ratings of five of SA's major banks at BB+ with a stable outlook. BB+ is one notch below investment grade, which corresponds to Fitch's sovereign credit rating for SA.Absa, Standard Bank, Investec, Nedbank and FirstRand managed to navigate a "challenging operating environment", Fitch said in a ratings action. 

"In recent years the South African operating environment has been challenging due to political instability, resulting in volatility, a lack of confidence and low growth for banks," the ratings agency said.

Rand now trading weaker against pound and dollar

After trading fairly even in the morning sessions, the rand started to weaken against the dollar and the pound early on Friday afternoon.  

At 13:27, the rand was changing hands at R14.23/$, down 0.4%, and at R18.23 to the pound, down 0.7%. 

Brexit update: May indicates there'll be no free vote on deal - Bloomberg 

British Prime Minister Theresa May is defending her Brexit deal and trying to fend off an attempt to oust her by Conservative Party colleagues, after four ministers quit her government on Thursday.

The prime minister is speaking on a phone-in show on LBC Radio, a UK radio station. 

May signalled that all Tories including ministers will be ordered to vote for the Brexit deal. That’s not a surprise but Penny Mordaunt - a pro-Brexit minister - has been calling on the premier to allow MPs to vote with their consciences. The pair met last night.

A "free vote," as it’s known, would allow Mordaunt and others to vote against May’s deal. But without that freedom, they will have to quit the government in order to oppose the Brexit agreement when it’s put to Parliament.

Rand slightly weaker against pound, firmer against dollar

The local currency was trading 0.3% weaker against the pound at R18.16, and 0.1% firmer against the dollar at R14:17 on Friday morning at 11:20.

This comes after strong gains against the two currencies on Thursday. 

In a statement on Friday morning, Andre Botha of TreasuryONE, said the rand would need fresh fresh impetus for any meaningful direction. 

Botha said the local unit's expected trading range against the dollar would likely be between R14.10 and R14.50.

Wall Street rallies but Brexit roils pound, European markets - AFP

Wall Street stanched the bleeding on Thursday, surging out of the red as oil prices stabilized and Apple recovered some losses.Investors were also heartened by word that the leaders of the United States and China were making renewed efforts to resolve their trade war ahead of planned meeting this month in Argentina.

The benchmark Dow snapped a four-day losing streak while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both added more than 1%

Asian markets up, pound struggling 

Asian markets mostly rose on Friday but fluctuated as investors weighed China-US trade speculation, while the pound struggled to recover from the previous day's Brexit bruising.

As a volatile week drew to a close, some stability emerged in the oil sector with earlier sharp losses tailing off, providing relief to regional energy firms. Hopes that the world's top two economies are making efforts to resolve their painful tariffs standoff provided support to global markets, though conflicting reports were keeping any optimism in check.

On Thursday it was reported that China had handed the US a number of trade concessions as part of a move to smooth relations ahead of a G20 summit where Donald Trump is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Brexit chaos gives rand welcome boost - Peregrine Treasury Solutions

"The chaos created by Brexit gave the rand a welcome boost on Thursday, following a steady decline of the local unit earlier this week. 

UK Prime Minister Teresa May and her peers battled it out yesterday as she fought to save the draft Brexit deal, while many of her colleagues who initially supported Brexit resigned in protest.

If anyone thought Europe was going to give the UK an easy divorce, they were certainly mistaken.

The Brexit fiasco has set a worrying precedent for other countries that were potentially leaning towards exiting the European Union. 

With no major events taking place on the local side, the rand’s rally is rather the result of a stumbling sterling which lost 2.3% against the local unit as May gave her speech last night. As the hype around Brexit dies off, another major event that we may see impacting the rand is the South African Parliamentary approval for the amendment of Section 25 of the Constitution to more expressly make room for land redistribution without compensation. 

This will be an interesting event to watch unfolding over the next few weeks, as many opposition parties and civil society organisations are arguing that proper procedure has not been followed, and that the decision should be challenged at the Constitutional Court." 

- Bianca Botes, Peregrine Treasury Solutions

Tokyo stocks fall - AFP

Tokyo stocks fell for the second straight session on Friday, weighed down by the tech sector, after shares in US chip firms plunged in after-hours trading on concern about their outlook.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 0.57% or 123.28 points to close at 21 680.34. Over the week, it lost 2.56%. The broader Topix index was down 0.59% or 9.67 points at 1 629.30, dropping 2.61% from a week ago.