MOST currencies weakened against the dollar following Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen’s comments on Friday that there was a strong case for raising US interest rates.An exception was the already battered rand which strengthened slightly to R14.33/$ on Monday morning from Friday’s R14.37/$ close.A weaker yen sent Tokyo’s Topix and Nikkei 225 indices soaring over 2% ahead of the JSE’s opening on Monday morning.The shares of Japanese exporters Sony, Toyota and Nissan were among the gainers on Yellen’s view the US economy is strong enough to support higher interest rates.Outside of Japan, most stock exchanges trading ahead of the JSE were red on Monday morning. The Australian Securities Exchange’s S&P/ASX 200 was over 1% down and New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 closed 0.2% lower.The JSE, which enjoyed an overall rally last week despite bank shares plummeting on the drama of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s debacle with the Hawks, looked set to remain flat with the rand on Monday.Bidvest an...
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