A JSE programming error, in which the bourse wildly overstated the purchase of equities by foreigners in May and July, distorted data used by the South African Reserve Bank in its interest rate decision last week.
The JSE said on Sunday that its statistical data indicating purchases by nonresidents of domestic shares of R98.1bn between May and July 22 was an error and should have reflected an outflow of R36.4bn over the period.
The Reserve Bank in its monetary policy committee (MPC) statement on Thursday last week painted a positive picture of the rand that it said was supported by the global search for yield.
In the statement, the Bank said since the beginning of June, net purchases of equities by nonresidents of R107.3bn had been recorded, reflecting the incorrect data.
The Bank admitted that incorrect data was quoted in the MPC statement on Thursday, but said it had not had any bearing on the committee’s decision not to hike rates.
On Monday, JSE CEO Nicky Newton-King said she was not exactly sure what had caused the programming error.
"It relates to how data was extracted from daily trading statistics," she said.
Newton-King said the JSE would be looking into why it took so long for the error to be uncovered and did not rule out that heads could eventually roll.
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