Johannesburg – After a depressing run since last week the rand maintained a positive bias in afternoon trade as uncertainties in the eurozone eased on positive news coming out of the UK and Spain.
The UK data pointed towards an improvement on trade deficit. The latest data showed that exports rose at their fastest pace in more than two years in May‚ while eurozone finance ministers were reported to have agreed on an assistance package for Spain's banks.
At 16:01 the rand was bid at R8.1686 to the dollar from its previous close of R8.2286. It was bid at R10.0291 to the euro from its previous close of R10.1286 and at R12.6769 against sterling from R12.7639 before.
The euro was bid at $1.2274 from its previous close of $1.2315.
“The rand had a positive bias on the back of data that came out of the UK. The news gave the markets some heart because it looks as though they are steps in the right direction‚” Mohammed Nalla‚ strategic analyst at Nedbank treasury said.
Meanwhile‚ Dow Jones Newswires reported Spain would keep working to ensure that Spanish banks receive direct capital injections from the European Union bailout fund in the future‚ bypassing the country's own fund‚ Finance Minister Luis de Guindos said on Tuesday.
The European Commission supports Madrid's stance on the issue‚ and a memorandum for the banking bailout to be signed on July 20 will likely include an explicit reference to direct capital injections as agreed on the last EU leaders' summit‚ De Guindos told reporters at the close of two days of meeting.