Rand sinks to 5-month lows, bourse higher
FTSE/JSE Africa Index Series
THE RAND’S woes continued yesterday with the domestic currency trading within a R12.68-R12.99 range to the dollar, its weakest in five months, still reeling from the detrimental economic data released earlier this week.
TearsuryONE senior currency dealer, Andre Botha, said the rand was staring down the barrel and was set to break above the R12.90 level yesterday.
“The rally was halted by a stronger euro as news emanating from the eurozone that the ECB (European Central Bank) was looking at tapering their quantitative easing at the next meeting. The risk that the lousy gross domestic product number brings forth is that every release from now on will be combed over and has the potential to be market moving,” said Botha.
At 5pm yesterday, the rand was 21 cents weaker than Wednesday’s same time bid at R12.92 to the greenback. Against the pound, the rand was 26c weaker at R17.33 and to the euro, the domestic currency gave up 30c to R15.28.
Corporate treasury manager at Peregrine Treasury Solutions, Bianca Botes, noted that the euro reached a 10-day high on Wednesday after comments from the ECB that by end of this year it might end its stimulatory bond buying.
“Thursdays are known for forex market volatility caused by the jobless claims from the US later in the afternoon,” she said.
Meanwhile, JSE stocks had a fairly good day with the blue chip Top40 index increasing 0.58 percent to 52 037.69 points, while the broader all share index ticked up 0.53 percent to 58 391.64 points.
The biggest gainers among bourse heavyweights were
which increased 5.7 percent to R317, followed by Sasol, which was 2.5 percent higher at
Iron Ore, Kumba Mondi Plc
R492. advanced 2.35 percent to R365.47, while ticked up 1.93 percent to R98.78 and
scored 1.68 percent growth to close at R306.35.
Leading losses among the large caps were which declined 3.71 percent to R72.70, followed by
which was 2.75 percent lower at R147.34.
BHP Billiton Sanlam, Discovery, Mediclinic Barclays Standard Bank Nedbank Investec Plc International
dropped while retreated 1.5 percent to R162.51 and
gave up 1.25 percent to end the day at R206.40.
inched lower, falling 0.83 percent to R273.41. 2.71 percent to
Africa
R96.91,
Group