UPDATE 1 – The South African rand falls after the state entity declared losses | News by country

* The market focuses on the woes of Eskom

* The stock breaks 2 sessions by winning (Stocks, update levels)

JOHANNESBURG, July 23 (Reuters) – The South Rand -africain drop of one percent Eskom electricity company, in trouble, reported a loss of 2.3 billion rand ($ 170.37 million) for the 2017/18 fiscal year . At 1522 GMT, the rand was 13.5350 to the dollar, down 1.05%.

The electricity company, which supplies more than 90% of the country's electricity and about 270 billion rand (20 billion dollars) of state-guaranteed debt, attributes the losses increases in financing costs and depreciation of badets. "The Eskom results painted a very disastrous picture.The figures show a struggling powerhouse of electricity, financial instability and a total lack of direction as to whether this future is sustainable," said Cheslyn. Francis, trader of derivatives at Afrifocus Securities

"I think that is what the market is focused on because the production of electricity is an important part of any industrialized nation. Everyone will follow the plans to find out how they are going to do it.

For fixed-income securities, the benchmark yield in 2026 increased by 0.5 basis points to 8.775%.

Stocks beat a two-session winning streak as growing commercial concerns over the latest US President Donald Trump's pricing threats against China offset a number of solid profits.

The All-share index of Johannesburg lost 0.76% to 56,556 points, while the Top-40 index fell 0.83% to 50,481 points. "There is still a climate of uncertainty over trade tensions, especially following Trump's comments last week that he could impose other tariffs on China and the social media tweet heading for Iran, "said the director of FXTM Global. of currency and market research Jameel Ahmad in a note.

Stocks of the consumer discretionary sectors weighed on the equity index, as the Naspers market's weight dropped 1.68% after its subsidiary agreed to acquire the Israeli payment technology provider Zooz .

Retailer Steinhoff extended Friday's profit-taking losses, closing 14.24 percent to 2.77 rand. ($ 1 = 13.5000 rand) (Reportage of Patricia Aruo and Nqobile Dludla, edited by Kirsten Donovan)