The pound tumbled on Monday following UK Sunday newspaper reports that British Prime Minister Theresa May will announce a "hard Brexit" on Tuesday.The rand strengthened more than 1% to R16.29/£ from Friday’s R16.48/£. The pound has now weakened 25% against the rand from the R21.70/£ it was trading at before the UK’s vote to leave the EU in June.The pound’s latest plunge is likely to mean more bad news for the JSE’s UK-focused stocks such as Capital & Counties, Brait and Intu.Renewed fears of a hard Brexit sent Asian stock exchanges trading ahead of the JSE’s opening on Monday morning down.Both Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng indices were more than 1% lower, and mainland China’s Shanghai composite index was down 1.4%.Airbag maker Takata’s share price dived 8.86% to ¥967 after it pleaded guilty to fraud in the US and agreed to pay a $1bn settlement.Renewed Brexit anxiety was good for gold was trading 0.5% higher at $1,203/oz on Monday morning. Other commodities rose, h...
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