Johannesburg – The rand was flat at noon on Thursday as trading volumes decline in the run up to the festive season.
“The rand was slightly stronger this morning due to Ben Bernanke’s decision to undergo another round of bond buying - $45bn worth. This is good for liquidity and thus good for a risk-on scenario‚” said Mark Kalkwarf‚ a senior portfolio manager from the Iquad Group.
At 12:09‚ the rand was bid at R8.6528/$ from Wednesday’s close of R8.6540. The local currency was bid at R11.2918/€ from its previous close of R11.3018 and at R13.9480 against sterling from R13.9545 before.
The euro was bid at $1.3058 from Wednesday’s close of $1.3065.
“The factory inflation data came in as expected‚ so it had no impact on the local currency‚” Kalkwarf said.