Ramaphosa to give banks flying start?

Banking stocks appear set for another cracker of a day after Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa won the African National Congress’s leadership race.

Banking shares got off to a flying start following Ramaphosa’s win. By 9.05am, the banking index gained a third of a percent, with the nation’s largest banks posting significant individual gains.

Standard Bank opened 0.96% higher at R186.78 per share, Barclays Africa gained 0.92% to R173.07 and Nedbank was up 0.90% to R242.17 per share.

Prior to the results announcement the market had priced in an outright win for the Ramaphosa slate, which saw the index close 5.21% higher at 8,866.77 index points.

Despite expectations, the composition of the party’s Top 6 officials came as somewhat of a surprise, with three each from Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s camp, which appears to weighing on the rand.

The local unit fell from a nine-month high of 12.52 per dollar to 12.85 early on Tuesday morning. It remains to be seen whether the banks will follow suit.

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