RAND WATCH:

The rand weakened yesterday, reflecting a firmer dollar after European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi said the bank had not discussed ending or extending its asset-buying programme when it met yesterday. Stocks ended slightly lower with MTN Group among the biggest decliners on allegations, which MTN denied, that the company illegally moved at least $14 billion out of Nigeria. At 5pm, the rand traded at R13.95 against the greenback. It had weakened as much as 1 percent to R13.98/dollar after Draghi’s comment. “There was a little bit of market volatility due to the ECB. There was a discussion about whether they are going to extend QE (quantitative easing) or taper QE that had an effect on euro/dollar, which then just built into dollar/ rand and we saw dollar/ rand moving up,” Treasury One currency trader Andre Botha said. “Overall it has been quiet today. Everybody is taking stock after the whole (Finance Minister) Pravin Gordhan saga and waiting for the midterm budget speech next week.”

THE RAND weakened yesterday, reflecting a firmer dollar after the European Central Bank (ECB) president, Mario Draghi, said the bank had not discussed ending or extending its asset-buying programme when it met earlier in the day.

At 5pm, the rand was bid at R13.9295 to the dollar, 4.73c softer than at the same time on Wednesday. The unit had weakened as much as 1 percent to R13.98 after Draghi’s comment.

“There was a little bit of market volatility due to the ECB. There was a discussion about whether they are going to extend QE (quantitative easing) or taper QE that had an effect on euro/dollar, which then just built into dollar/rand and we saw dollar/rand moving up,” Treasury One currency trader, Andre Botha, said.

The euro fell to a four-month low against the dollar.