eNCA Business | Market update | 26 May 2026

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Very good morning to you Merrill and thank you very much for your time. How have Asian markets opened this morning and do you see that uh the JSC will follow the same momentum?

[00:00:12]>> Good morning. Um Asian markets have opened a bit mixed um and I think most likely today's JSC movements will be determined by commodity price movements.

[00:00:23]So we've seen the oil price stay below 100 even as there are re reports of renewed strikes um of the US on Iran.

[00:00:35]But what we've seen over the short term, the last 3 months, has been a pattern forming where if oil pulls back, gold and platinum um strengthen. Um and given how important those metals are for the JC at this point um it could be a reasonably good day if if those, you know, are strong.

[00:01:01]>> And let's take a closer look at that oil price. What does oil being below $100 a barrel mean? Especially since government's fuel levy relief comes to an end in June here in South Africa.

[00:01:14]>> Yes. So oil pulling back, we we should see a bit of a relief in fuel prices in general. Clearly $98 a barrel is still a very high price and um refining margins to convert crude into petrol or diesel are still quite high and those markets are quite constrained and tight. So fuel prices remain elevated but are coming off um that peak and so um there should be a slightly better breathing room for consumers compared to the last few months but certainly still elevated compared to last year. Um, you know, I think the Reserve Bank might wait and see and look through that because, um, really the worst case scenario here is that consumers get interest rate hikes on top of higher fuel devices.