Think Daily 27 September 2021

In Thursday’s trading session in the local markets, the Top 40 closed the day up by 1.24%. The Resources 10 sector went up by 0.51%, the Financial 15 went up by 1.00%, the Industrial 25 went up by 1.70% and lastly the South African Listed Property index up by 0.14%. The Rand traded at R14.92 against the United State Dollar, R20.42 against the Great British pound, and R17.49 against the Euro. On Thursday, rand gained strongly as the dollar fell on global markets and the central bank held its main interest rate at a record low (unchanged at 3.5%). South African markets were closed on Friday for a public holiday. In the latest corporate news, Christo Wiese resigns from Gemfields board.



Figure 1: 5 day USDZAR spot rate
On the commodities front, the Brent Crude oil is trading at $78.33 a barrel and WTI Crude oil traded at $75.09 a barrel. Gold Spot price is currently trading at $1755.50, Platinum Spot is now trading at $1002.50 and lastly, Palladium Spot price is at $1990.00. Gold was slightly higher in Asian trading as hawkish central bank stances have likely been factored in. Oil gained in early Asian trade as supply tightness continued to draw on inventories across all regions
Across the globe, the S&P 500 closed the day up 0.15%, Dow Jones closed up 0.10% and the Nasdaq had a 0.09% up. The FTSE 100 closed down 0.38% and the DAX was down 0.72% and CAC40 was down 0.95%. In the Asian markets, the Nikkei 225 is down 0.03% and the Hang Seng is currently up 0.15%. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average was up led by gains in airlines and railway operators, on hopes for economic reopening and government policy stimulus. Chinese stocks rose in early trade due to gains by liquor makers and new-energy sectors.
Things to look out for today in the trading day: Eurozone M3 Money Supply (YoY) (Aug) at 10.00 am.