South African rand, bank stocks rally on hopes of Ramaphosa victory

South African assets rallied early Monday as investor hopes grew that pro-reform candidate Cyril Ramaphosa was likely to have secured a victory in the ruling ANC’s knife-edge leadership contest.

According to Financial Times (FT) report, the rand suffered a bumpy start to the day as it became clear that the vote would go down to the wire as it shed all of its early gains. It however recovered later as indications point to Ramaphosa claiming victory. The rand at a point returned to a 2.4 percent daily gain to 12.8384 per dollar.

The country’s government bonds also gained, with yields on its benchmark 10-year debt falling 21.6 basis points (0.216 percentage points) to 8.914 per cent, reflecting rising prices.

At the equities market, banks were the biggest beneficiaries with the FTSE Johanessburg Stock Exchange sub-index of bank stocks climbing 6.6 percent to its highest level on record.

Official results of the elections are expected later as vote counting is still ongoing.