Johannesburg - The rand was steady in quiet early trade on
Monday despite concern that fallout from the violence at Lonmin’s Marikana mine
could spill over into other mining companies‚ dealers said.
“We have had a quiet start to the week but traders are
nervous as we do not know what the impact of Marikana will be‚” a local trader
said.
At 8.44am local time the rand was bid at R8.3276 to the
dollar from Friday’s close of R8.3127 and Thursday’s close of R8.2198. It was
bid at R10.2849 to the euro from its previous close of R10.2651 and at R13.0779
against sterling from R13.0463 before.
The euro was bid at $1.2357 from $1.2337.
RMB said the rand had been weighed down by the struggles in
other high-yielding currencies and by some sharp relative underperformance.
“The weekend should have softened both factors so maybe we
can break the aggressive trend of weakness that persisted through last week.
Resistance is at last week’s highs of R8.3650 on USD/ZAR and R10.30 on
EUR/ZAR‚” the bank said.
“The rand’s underperformance on Friday can most easily be
ascribed to the Marikana mine shooting. It made international news in a big way
and we received inquiries from our offshore clients.
“Friday’s foreign portfolio activity data in the bond and
equity markets will tell us more. To the extent that it has affected‚ we should
expect a lingering impact that slowly drops away‚” it said.
“The struggle of the high-yielding currencies complex‚ to
which the rand belongs‚ remains a puzzle. Global equities keep hitting records
and typical risk indicators such as the VIX ‘fear gauge’ index of implied
volatility is at levels last seen pre-crisis‚” it concluded.
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