Oil began inching upward on Thursday after a day of losses over demand concerns linked to the Covid-19 lockdown in China.
Markets in Asia were largely up, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining over a percent in early trade, with brokers staying optimistic over a falling yen for a third straight day. "Fed Chair Powell and ECB President Lagarde speak at an IMF Panel, while BoE Governor Bailey speaks at a separate event later Thursday," Innes said.
Fewer consumers are focusing on home improvements as more employees are returning to offices, following the easing of lockdown restrictions and a decline in Covid-19 cases. Cashbuild, the largest retailer of building materials in South Africa, was also hit by the July unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng last year. Excluding the 36 stores damaged in the unrest, its revenue for the third quarter declined by 7%.
The latest inflation numbers were announced on Wednesday morning, and were slightly cooler than economists expected, with annual consumer inflation reaching 5.9% in March from 5.7% in February. The median of 13 economists’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey was 6.0%. KwaZulu-Natal, home to the nation’s biggest port, is the second-largest contributor to South Africa’s economy and damage caused by the worst flooding in almost three decades is expected to run into billions of rands. The impact is poised to reverberate across South Africa as the disaster also hit operations at clothing retailer Pepkor, forced Toyota to suspended production and damaged paper company Sappi’s facilities, and could see the central bank lower its 2022 economic growth forecast of 2%.
Altron announced in January that Mteto Nyati was stepping down as CEO following the end of his five-year term. As global concern over rising US interest rates sent emerging-market currencies into reverse, the rand weakened more than 2% against the dollar on Tuesday, the biggest daily decline among the asset class. Embattled sugar and property group Tongaat Hulett warned on Tuesday that its debt burden for the year to end-March increased to R6.8 billion, from R5.8 billion a year before, owing to the group's cashflow being"considerably worse" than expected.
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