As it turns out, the rand didn't fall off a cliff yesterday after the country's sovereign credit ratings were cut again by Moody's and Fitch Ratings. Banking shares also recovered slightly from their decline ahead of the announcement on Friday evening. According to analysts, the bad news may have already been priced in, while optimism over a number of potential vaccines for Covid-19 has also lifted the mood, overriding the concern that SA will pay more for its debt.

Naspers helped support the JSE's close to 1% gain yesterday after releasing half-year results and confirming that subsidiary Prosus would start a $5 billion buyback of shares in both companies, starting from today. Pepkor and Netcare fell on the back of their latest results, however, despite both companies reporting a recovery in trading conditions.

Sirius Real Estate jumped more than 8% as it increased its interim dividend following a resilient first-half for its German property portfolio.

More on those stories to follow, along with results from enX Group and news that Famous Brands will shortly be listing on A2X Markets.

I hope you have a good day.

Stephen Gunnion

Managing Editor, InceConnect

The latest from Ingham Analytics

Gold this year is up 23% in US dollars, even after coming back from multi-years highs. Silver is up 35%. This means gold gives overinflated tech stocks a run for their money. Ingham Analytics include gold as a core part of their coverage universe and their latest thoughts are available in "Added weight". Their forecast on what Tencent would contribute to the Prosus results released yesterday was right on the money, as described in "What a drag".