Johannesburg – The rand was on a firmer footing against major currencies in late trade‚ tracking global risk themes‚ as the negative effects of the Lonmin mine shootings on the local currency receded in the background.
At 16:00 time the rand was trading at R8.2207/$ from Monday’s close of R8.3197. It was trading at R10.2513/€ from its previous close of R10.2714 and at R12.9629/£ from R13.0688 before.
The euro was bid at US$1.2470 from $1.2350.
Investors continue to believe that the European Central Bank would step in to intervene in markets to help fiscally frail eurozone countries‚ Dow Jones Newswires reported.
"People are increasingly hopeful that the ECB's policy backstop will soon be in place‚ and this has been reflected in the compression of yields on Spanish and Italian debt‚” said Dan Dorrow‚ from Faros Trading.
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