Rand, JSE in for a jittery day as Italian election hits global markets
The rand briefly weakened back over R12/$ at 5.10am on Monday morning on what looks likely to be a jittery day for global markets as the results of Italy’s election are tallied. The rand recovered slightly by 7am to trade at R11.98/$, R14.77/€ and R16.53/£. Early results from Italy’s election pointed to populist, anti-EU parties doing better than polls had predicted. Reuters reported a rightist alliance including former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (Go Italy!) emerged with the biggest bloc of votes, ahead of the anti-system 5-Star Movement, which saw its support soar to became Italy’s largest single party. One of the few "market positive" coalitions that could emerge according to a note e-mailed by Barclays on Monday morning would be a "centre right plus others" alliance consisting of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, Matteo Salvini's far-right League, the neo-fascist Brothers of Italy and the Union of the Centre (UDC) parties. Tokyo’s Topix and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ind...
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