Rand strengthens as dollar stumbles
Forex and bonds
THE RAND firmed yesterday, shaking off a slight dip in sentiment towards emerging market currencies to resume a recent rally as the greenback stumbled ahead of the first debate between the two US presidential candidates.
At 5pm, the rand was bid at R13.6614 to the dollar, 1.45c stronger than at the same time on Friday.
With no significant domestic data releases in the session, the rand looked offshore for direction and took advantage of investors’ dollar jitters.
The rand touched a session best of R13.62 and briefly looked poised to test resistance around R13.40 before stalling as some investors continued to cash-in on the recent rally.
Government bonds weakened, with the benchmark 2026 issue rising.