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Rand coasts to a high as dollar drops

Johannesburg - The rand ended firmer against the dollar on Friday and posted its biggest weekly gain since December after a string of soft US data hit the greenback.
 
Stocks ended lower, tracking weak global markets, and with FirstRand among the worst performers after the lender dropped its bid to buy into Nigeria’s Sterling Bank.

Early evening trade, the unit was trading at R6.7070/$, a one-month high and slightly firmer than its New York close of R6.7150/$ on Thursday.

“We’ve had a progression of steadily worse numbers from the US this week, highlighting they’re struggling to break the shackles of the recession, so it’s been a bit of a rush to high-yielding assets,” said a local currency dealer.

The rand has gained more than 3% on the dollar this week, having started the week at the R6.95/$ level and breaking key resistance since then.
 
“We’ve had quite a decent move this week and saw a lot of real money into our bond market as well, once again a flight to safety,” the dealer added.
 
Government bonds ended mixed but analysts say foreign buying will continue to bolster the local market while the global economy remains uncertain.
 
The yield on the 2015 bond ended 1.5 basis points lower at 7.43% while that on the longer-dated 15-year note closed a basis point higher at 8.405%.
 
“It looks like the US economy is still under pressure after all the efforts they put in place to try and stimulate the economy,” said Martin Letsoane, a trader at Newstrading.
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Rand - Dollar
18.94
-0.2%
Rand - Pound
23.91
-0.1%
Rand - Euro
20.43
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