Week 8

Property Industry:

• April home loans submissions outperformed expectations
• The average home loans price for April was 8.5% higher than the 2020 average
• Bank conversion ratios for April were higher than March 2021
• Bondable business increased by 12.55% in Q1 of 2021 vs the same quarter in 2020
• The average house price has increased by 7.99% in Q1 vs the same quarter in 2020

Local & International Markets:

• The rand is stronger after closing weaker earlier this week. It is currently at R14.43/$ (R14.47/$*)
• EM currencies were mixed this week; the RUB (+0.5%), CLP (+0.3%) and IDR (+0.1%) were amongst the biggest gainers; the TRY (-0.8%), PLN (-0.6%) and SGD (-0.5%) were amongst the biggest losers
• Asian equity markets the Nikkei, Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite are down
• Brent crude oil is up by 34% year-to-date
• The gold price is up this week but down by 6.3% year-to-date
• Brent crude oil is currently at $69.37/bbl; ($6.88/bbl*)
• Gold is at $1779/oz ($1776/oz*)
• SA CDS 222bps*, higher than Brazil 195bps* and lower than Turkey 420bps*
• Yields: US 10yr at 1.59%*, German bund at -0.238%* and SA 10-year generic at 9.51%*, SA’s R186 at 7.31%*

Covid Update:

• Covid-19 global update: cases have surpassed 154.98 million, while the death toll has surpassed 3.24 million; recoveries are at 132.46 million
• Africa’s Covid-19 cases are at 4.627 million; fatalities are at 123,210
• Morocco has 512,285 reported cases, Nigeria 165,215, Ghana 92,740, Kenya 160,904
• SA has the 20th highest caseload, at 1.586 million; 1,187 new cases were reported on Tuesday
• Covid-19 deaths rose by 59 Tuesday, to 54,511; 1.509 million people (or 95%) have recovered from the virus
• Provincial caseload: Gauteng 425,080 (accounting for 26.8% of the total); KwaZulu-Natal has 336,855 (21.3% of the total); Western Cape 287,135 (18.1% of the total)
• Provincial deaths: Western Cape 11,630; Gauteng 10,692; KwaZulu-Natal 10,408
• 73 million tests have been conducted since 5 March 2020; 24,040 tests were conducted Tuesday
• 339,655 vaccines have been administered to date