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Johannesburg - The rand firmed slightly along with other
commodity currencies against the dollar on Monday, as positive Chinese factory
data put an ease to fears of a hard landing for world’s second-biggest economy.
The rand was trading at R7.6403 to the dollar at 06:13 GMT,
0.18% firmer than Friday’s close of R7.657.
Purchasing Managers’ Index data released in several
countries around the world later on Monday will likely shed more light on the
performance of the global economy.
South Africa’s March Kagiso Securities PMI is due for
release at 09:00 GMT. Last month it jumped to a two-year high of 57.9 in
February from 53.2 in January due to robust seasonally adjusted business
activity and new sales orders indices.
“The rand is a tad stronger, the numbers in China is
probably to some extent encouraging for emerging markets,” said Ion de
Vleeschauwer, a trader at Bidvest Bank.
China’s official PMI jumped to an 11-month high as a stream
of new orders lifted activity, easing fears for a hard landing.
“There is probably going to be a rally in emerging markets,
stock markets are looking pretty decent in the far east this morning, probably
a positive start to the rand,” said De Vleeschauwer.
The repo rate has been left unchanged at its historical low
of 5.5% since November 2010 to stimulate a sluggish economic recovery.
Yields on the benchmark government bonds were little moved,
slipping half a basis points to 6.695% for the 2015 bond and to 8.375% for that
on the 2026 note.
On the bourse, stocks looked set for a stronger start, with the June futures contract of the JSE’s blue-chip Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] index up 0.32% before the 07:00 GMT start of trade.
