Johannesburg - Although firmer, the rand was off its best level in late, quiet
afternoon trade on Monday as the euro gave up Friday's gains and slipped
below the $1.33 per dollar level.
"We had a good start this morning, but as the euro eased in the afternoon, so we followed suit," a local rand trader said.
At 18:00 local time, the rand was bid at R7.6203 to the dollar from Friday's close of R7.6620 and Thursday's close of R7.7117. It was bid at R10.1486 to the euro from R10.2041 before, and at R12.1986 against sterling from R12.2253 previously.
The euro was bid at $1.3316 from Friday's close of $1.3372 and Thursday's close of $1.3304.
RMB analysts said that the strong gains on Friday had taken the rand back to near the middle of its range. After the nervous trade of last week, risks were more evenly balanced in what was going to be a very busy week.
"On Friday we had the eurozone bailout fund expansion approved, a nicely conservative Spanish budget, and further evidence of a pickup in US consumer spending. The tone has started off very positively this week: we have already received a much better than expected official Chinese manufacturing March PMI figure at 53.1 versus 51.0 in February," RMB said.
"We had a good start this morning, but as the euro eased in the afternoon, so we followed suit," a local rand trader said.
At 18:00 local time, the rand was bid at R7.6203 to the dollar from Friday's close of R7.6620 and Thursday's close of R7.7117. It was bid at R10.1486 to the euro from R10.2041 before, and at R12.1986 against sterling from R12.2253 previously.
The euro was bid at $1.3316 from Friday's close of $1.3372 and Thursday's close of $1.3304.
RMB analysts said that the strong gains on Friday had taken the rand back to near the middle of its range. After the nervous trade of last week, risks were more evenly balanced in what was going to be a very busy week.
"On Friday we had the eurozone bailout fund expansion approved, a nicely conservative Spanish budget, and further evidence of a pickup in US consumer spending. The tone has started off very positively this week: we have already received a much better than expected official Chinese manufacturing March PMI figure at 53.1 versus 51.0 in February," RMB said.