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Rand on front foot against dollar

Johannesburg - The rand started Friday on a firmer note and looked set to the end the week with its 2.5% gains intact after another volatile five days of trade.

Charts suggest the rand will have to close below R7.80 this week to indicate that its recent firming trend will continue.

Government bonds strengthened, with foreigners buying over R5bn of local debt over the last five sessions.

The yield on the 2015 bond was down five basis points to 6.7% and that on the 2026 note fell 3.5 basis points to 8.395%.

The rand was trading at R7.8220 to the dollar at 06:55 GMT, 0.7% firmer than Thursday's New York close of R7.8780.

"We might dip below R7.80 like we did a few days ago and I expect R7.80 to hold," said a dealer at Standard Bank.

The R7.80 level presents strong resistance for the rand. It has tried and failed to break the level four times since its sharp fall to a 28-month low of R8.4950 on September 22.

A close below R7.80 would open up the R7.50's, the dealer said, adding focus would also be on the weekend meeting of finance chiefs from the G20 group of emerging and advanced economies.

Domestic stocks opened up, with the JSE's Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] index 0.4% firmer shortly after the start of trade.

 
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Rand - Dollar
18.90
+0.2%
Rand - Pound
23.84
+0.3%
Rand - Euro
20.39
+0.2%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.31
+0.3%
Rand - Yen
0.12
+0.2%
Platinum
908.05
0.0%
Palladium
1,014.94
0.0%
Gold
2,232.75
-0.0%
Silver
24.95
-0.1%
Brent Crude
87.00
+1.8%
Top 40
68,346
0.0%
All Share
74,536
0.0%
Resource 10
57,251
0.0%
Industrial 25
103,936
0.0%
Financial 15
16,502
0.0%
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