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Johannesburg— A combination of push and pull factors kept the rand steady at midday on Thursday. Euro weakness stemming from fears over contagion in Europe has kept the domestic currency on the back foot‚ while talk about the introduction of a Brics bank has renewed investor sentiment.
“Two things that are affecting the rand at the moment‚” says Mark Kalkwarf‚ a senior portfolio manager at the Iquad Group‚ “We’ve seen considerable positive sentiment stemming from talk about a Brics bank. More interaction between the Brics countries will have a positive effect on development. On the opposite side of the coin is Cyprus putting in capital controls. There are still fears of contagion in the eurozone.”
Kalkwarf said the rand had done extremely well in the last couple of days against the other currencies‚ “Not so much against the dollar but we’ve seen the rand strengthen against the euro.”
At 11:28‚ the rand was bid at R9.2603/$ from R9.2639 at the previous close.
The local currency was bid at R11.816/ from its previous close of R11.8283 and at R14.0254 against sterling from R14.0037 before.
The euro was bid at $1.2759 from $1.2773 at the previous close.
