The JSE is likely to suffer its third day of losses on Friday, judging from Asian stock exchanges trading ahead of its opening. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 and Sydney’s ASX 200 indices were both down about 0.6%, mainly on oil stocks after oil cartel Opec extended the existing production cuts only to end-March 2018, which sent crude futures plunging almost 5% on Thursday. Some investors had hoped Opec would agree to extend the cuts for longer. Sasol fell 2.38% to R398 and Standard Bank’s West Texas Intermediate (WTI) price tracking exchange-traded note 2.17% to R9 on Thursday on the disappointment that the Opec cut was extended only to the end to of the first quarter of next year. The rand was still holding bellow R13/$ on Friday morning, but its four-day run on the hope that President Jacob Zuma will be ousted at this weekend’s ANC national executive committee (NEC) appears to have faded. The rand was 0.18% weaker against the dollar at R12.95/$ at 7am. While the Reserve Bank left the repo ra...
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