Johannesburg – The rand strengthened slightly on Monday afternoon as traders wait for US election to start on Tuesday.
“The local currency was influenced by the positive US data from last Friday and today’s strength has just been an overreaction to it‚” said Ockert van Niekerk‚ head of trading at PSG.
At 15:30, the rand was bid at R8.7388/$ from Friday’s close of R8.7543. It was bid at R11.1631 to the euro from its previous close of R11.2522 and at R13.9549 against sterling from R14.0433 before.
The euro was bid at $1.2782 from Friday’s close of $1.2822.
“The Greece bond buy backs are also adding pressure on emerging markets‚ which is rand negative. This week we will also see the reserve banks from Australia and the UK coming out with their rate decisions and EU inflation data is scheduled to come out after that‚” Van Niekerk said.