On the day that ANC President, Jacob Zuma was decide not to be prosecuted by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for alleged fraud, corruption, money laundering and racketeering, the rand did not react. Some of us had thought that this news may cause our local currency to take a knock as foreign investors may have reacted to this decision. But for now, the rand has not reacted; who knows, maybe in a couple of days or weeks, we will start to see movements in the rand, triggered by the Jacob Zuma decision. But it will be very difficult to say that the rand has dropped or gained strength becuase Zuma hs been cleared. The closest we could have got to see the rands reaction to this whole Zuma saga would have been today when then decision was made but alas the rand was not phased.

At 16:05 the rand was bid at 9.0458 to the dollar from an overnight close of 9.0310. It was bid at 12.1635 to the euro from a previous 12.2020 and at 13.4080 against sterling from 13.4085 before.

I guess at the end of the day, many expected the Zuma decision to go as it went, so business as normal, life goes on.

The rand reached a five and a half month high yesterday (Thursday) against the greenback this on the back of positive equity markets across the world following the news from the G20 summit that they have agreed to a deal making available more than $1 trillion in additional funds for leading international financial institutions, and laid the groundwork for a recovery of the global economy. The news from the G20 sent global equity markets soaring into positive territory. In South Africa, the JSE All Share index closed 3.19% in the positive whilst the rand was trading at 9.1350 against the dollar at 17:35, about 2.3% firmer than its previous New York close of 9.3505 on Wednesday. It touched 9.1102 earlier, its firmest level since October 15, according to Reuters data. Could this just be a sign that the world economy is starting to recover due to the G20 summit? Watch this space.

The JSE closed 5.02% in the red today (Thursday). This has resulted in a three year low for the all share index as it touched 17 814 points. The drop in the JSE was attributed to weak Dow and other global markets, which remained down under the weight of negative conditions. Analysts are saying that this drop in the local market is part of a broader correction and they expect the drop to continue.

The JSE was also not helped by news that Impala Platinum has suspended its share buy-back programme. Shares in Impala, the world’s second-largest platinum producer, fell 17% today.
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When most of us woke up this morning, we were shocked to find the rand trading at new record lows. The rand had slumped below the R10/$ mark over night but it recovered in early morning trade today to the R9.79/$ mark. But as the day went on the rand started to loose on those earlier gains. During the course of the day, the rand reached a six year worst level of R10.8615/$. At 17:15 the rand was bid at R10.4490/$ from a previous close of R10.6687. It was bid at R14.0065/€ from a previous R14.3728 and at R18.0200/£ from R18.2950 before. Earlier it touched intraday worst bids of R14.5359/€ and R18.7383/£.

With the falling rand it is very unlikely that we will see a fuel price drop in South Africa. World oil prices continue to drop; many had thought this would be good news as the price of fuel would also drop but no such luck due to the depreciating rand. Unaudited figures, up to October 16, indicate it was possible the price of petrol could be reduced by up to 29 cents next month, and diesel could go down 23 cents, but this looks more and more unlikely each day the rand continues to drop.

After gains achieved in the last two days on the JSE, those gains were wiped out today as the local bourse lost nearly 7% following severe drops in overseas markets amid renewed fears of a global economic slowdown even after massive bank bailouts. Resources and platinum miners were the hardest hit, plummeting by more 11% and 13% respectively, as fears of global economic slowdown hit platinum group metals prices and all other base metals. Meanwhile investors still look towards gold as a safe haven but gold shares were unable to capitalise at the end of the day.

The all share index ended 6.99% in the red today, or 1 545 points, at 20 571.87, edging closer to breaching that 20 000 mark. Banks lost 1.26%, financials were down 2.91% and industrials shed 4.62%.

The rand was bid at R9.41/$ from R8.97 when the JSE closed on Tuesday, while gold was last quoted at $845.80 a troy ounce from $841.35/oz at the JSE’s last close.

What a day for the rand! The rand spiked above the R9/$ level to R9.4595 - a level last witnessed in November 2002. The drop in the rand is been largely driven by the global market turmoil. Rate cuts by central banks around the world saw some currencies, including the rand, recoup some of their earlier losses but this did not last long. The Fed reduced its key rate from 2% to 1.5%, while the Bank of England cut its base lending rate by half a point to 4.5%, and the ECB, which last week decided to keep borrowing costs on hold, cut to 3.75%. Other central banks also taking part include the banks of Canada, Sweden, and Switzerland. Chances are very slim that South Africa will follow suite and also cut rate tomorrow (Thursday) with many analysts predicting rates to remain where they are for now.

At 15:50 the rand was bid at R9.3290/$ from a previous close of R8.9184. It was bid at R12.6867/€ from a previous R12.1303 and at R16.2431/£ from R15.6127 before.

If this were football, and the JSE were down 3 - 0 at half time after yesterdays slump, then today, the JSE would have pulled a goal back to make the score 3 - 1. The JSE staged a recovery today, the all share index ended 2.56% higher, largely due to a 3.27% rise in resources. The platinum mining index rallied 3.57%, but the gold mining index shed 0.96%. Firmer metal prices spurred a fresh round of buying for mining stocks which resulted in platinum miner Anglo Platinum (AMS) rising 6.79% to R582, Impala Platinum (IMP) gained 1.17% to R130 and Lonmin (LON) was up 6.54%, to R259.95. Investors are still looking to buy into resources at this stage, notably gold as they see it as a safe haven. This resulted in the price of gold to increase by 2% today.

Brewer, SABMiller (SAB) caught the eye today as it soared 8.57%. Could this have been spurred by the introduction of their new beer, Dreher onto the local market or just generally that, even during tough times consumers are still going to drink?

The rand continues to hover around the R8.82/$ mark with growing fears that the local currency could soon hit the R9.00/$ mark. One would assume that exporters would be very happy with the rand trading at R9.00/$ but with the current slow down in the world economy, the goods and services that would be exported may not be consumed by the consumers in the foreign countries that are struggling to get to grips with what is happening in the world markets.