Johannesburg - The rand remained relatively firm at noon‚
pulling further away from its three-and-a-half year weakest point against the
US dollar reached on Monday due to labour strife.
At 11:45am‚ the rand was bid at R8.7116 to the dollar from
Tuesday’s close of R8.74513‚ Monday’s worst level of R8.9945 and Monday’s close
of R8.8855.
It was bid at R11.1928 to the euro from its previous close
of R11.2606‚ and at R13.9367 against sterling from R13.9898 before.
The euro was bid at $1.2856 from $1.2873 at Tuesday’s close
and $1.2965 at Monday’s close.
“There are big underlying‚ structural concerns in SA in
addition to the current strike activity‚” said Mike Keenan‚ analyst at Absa
Capital. “The Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus’s remarks on the SA economy
today were dovish. Therefore‚ we think the rand will struggle to break below
the R8.60-65 to the US dollar level.”
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