Rand rallies to strongest in a month

THE RAND rallied to its firmest in nearly a month yesterday, brushing off a poor economic growth print as a weaker dollar and bets on improvement in commodity prices boosted appetite for emerging currencies.

At 5pm, the rand was bid at R13.6297 to the dollar, 17.89c firmer than at the same time on Monday. By 5.30pm the unit had strengthened to R13.6150, its firmest level since November 10.

The dollar index slipped to near a three-week low against a basket of currencies, mostly pressed by investor focus on the European Central Bank’s policy meeting tomorrow.

The rand gained to a session high R13.5850 despite growth data showing the economy only grew 0.2 percent in the third quarter, before pulling back slightly as technical factors kicked-in.