JOHANNESBURG, July 19 (Reuters) – The following scheduled economic event, company announcements, equity and currency market moves may affect South African markets on Friday.

ECONOMIC EVENT

Weekly inflation-linked bond auction

COMPANIES

Global cyber outage grounds flights, hits media, financial, telecoms

SOUTH AFRICAN MARKETS

South Africa’s rand was stable on Thursday after the South African Reserve Bank kept its main interest rate unchanged for the seventh meeting in a row.

On the stock market, the Top-40 index was slightly stronger at 0.15%.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian shares are set to end the week on a sour note, as uncertainty across major economies added to headwinds for investors even as the global rate easing cycle gets under way.

WALL STREET

U.S. stocks tumbled on Thursday, reversing early gains as investors continued to rotate away from high-priced megacap growth stocks and second-quarter earnings season gathered steam.

GOLD

Gold prices fell on Friday, but were on track for a fourth straight weekly gain as expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in September lifted bullion’s appeal.

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Some of the main stories out in the South African press:

BUSINESS DAY

– Mixed reaction to Cyril Ramaphosa’s opening of parliament speech

– Healthcare costs pushing more than half of SA’s TB patients into poverty

(Compiled by Bhargav Acharya)