Johannesburg – The rand held steady at noon amid signs of consolidation after a slide in the previous session on a combination of factors that included downbeat domestic mining and manufacturing data.
At 11:38‚ the rand was bid at R8.6955/$ from Thursday’s close of R8.7034. It was bid at R11.0761/€ from its previous close of R11.0873 and at R13.8972/£ from R13.8956 before.
The euro was bid at $1.2741 from Thursday’s close of $1.2740.
Absa Capital said in a note the disappointing data highlighted South Africa’s fragile macroeconomic backdrop and kept the door open for further credit rating downgrades.