Markets leap higher!

Domestic data was disappointing this past week. GDP growth for the final quarter of last year was lower than expected at 0.6% and full year growth of 1.3% was meagre at best. The agriculture and manufacturing sectors were the biggest detractors to growth, but the weakness was broad based. New vehicle sales slumped for another month in February as total industry sales dropped by 8.1% year-on-year. News of Barclays’ plans to pull out of Absa dented sentiment as it caused uncertainty over foreign interest in the country, but political uncertainty and noisethat there is a rift between Finance Minister Gordhan and some political leaders were of greater concern, even though the leading ANC moved to squash the speculation. Nersa, the energy regulator, announced that they granted Eskom a 9.4%  tariff increase for this year. Initially it was thought that this was over and above the original increase granted, but it turned out to replace the previous tariff increase  of 8%.

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