Related Articles
Top Stories
Feb 13 2012 12:15
Miner Xstrata says it has brought forward maintenance on two furnaces to assist Eskom to save power.
Feb 13 2012 10:43
Although jobs were created, the economy is still 420 000 jobs short of the peak employment level before the 2009 global financial crisis, says Adcorp.
Feb 13 2012 07:58
Greek lawmakers have approved a new round of drastic austerity measures after a long day of street battles between police and protesters left dozens injured.
Johannesburg - The rand was marginally firmer in midday trade on Wednesday, tracking the euro amid a mild improvement
in global risk appetite fuelled by a spike in equity markets.
At 12:05 the rand was bid at R7.4314 to the dollar from R7.4483 at its previous close. It was bid at R10.4141 to the euro from its previous close of R10.4337 and was at R11.8918 against the sterling from R11.9196.
The euro was bid at $1.4012 from $1.3975 previously.
A local currency trader said: "The rand is firm tracking a stronger euro. If the single currency continues to bounce, we could see the rand hit R7.38, and then R7.28 against the dollar.
RMB analysts noted in their morning report that yesterday the EU made it clear that they would give their formal approval to the Greek budget proposals expected today. "This isn't a Best Film award, which would be a bail-out for the country but a Best Supporting Actor is enough to take some stress off risky
assets after My Big Fat Greek Downgrade by the ratings agencies sent markets into a spiral in December," analysts John Cairns and Nema Ramkhelawan said.
"All this helps: equities, commodities and the EUR are all up - and January's falls that threatened to turn into a major tumble have slid into the background of investor's minds. US dollar/rand as a result has made progress; yesterday's moves through R7.48 open the way for R7.38.
"The very positive local vehicle sales data certainly helped. The rand though is looking a bit extended relative to its peers. Also be aware that we have a busy day on the data front. Given Monday's international data, the bias must be for positive data. Finally, after a busy day, markets could go into a lull in front of the ECB meeting tomorrow and the US non-farm payroll data on Friday. Resistance is at US dollar/rand R7.5350," Cairns and Ramkhelawan concluded.
Dow Jones Newswires reported that in the foreign exchange markets, gains in equities helped risk appetite, although investors remained cautious ahead of rate decisions from the European Central Bank and the Bank of England this week, as well as Friday's US jobs report.
- I-Net Bridge