South African Markets - Factors to watch on Oct 29
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 29 (Reuters) - The following company announcements, scheduled economic indicators, debt and currency market moves and political events may affect South African markets on Thursday.
EVENTS
PRETORIA - Stats S.A. releases September producer inflation data. 0730 GMT
PRETORIA - Stats SA releases Quarterly Labour Force Survey with Q3 unemployment data. 0930 GMT
GLOBAL MARKETS
Asian shares fell on Thursday after a set of weak U.S. data rekindled worries about global growth and prompted a shift away from riskier assets, lifting the yen and underpinning the dollar.
An unexpected drop in U.S. home sales last month, which sparked a broad sell-off on Wall Street on Wednesday, followed a decline in U.S. consumer confidence, highlighting risks to recovery in the world's biggest economy.
That unnerved investors in the Asia Pacific, who trimmed exposure to stocks and shifted out of high-yielding currencies in favour of the dollar and the Japanese yen JPY=. [ID:nSP546022]
SOUTH AFRICAN MARKETS
South Africa's rand fell sharply against the dollar on Wednesday, touching a near 2-month low as risk aversion swept across global markets, while weaker resource stocks led the local bourse lower.
The benchmark equity index finished broadly in the red for a second straight session.
The Johannesburg Top-40 index .JTOPI of blue-chips ended down 1.89 percent to 23,406.45 points after earlier falling more than 2 percent, while the broader All-Share index dropped 1.74 percent to 26,045.48 points. [ID:nLS40592]
