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Johannesburg – The rand strengthened in the late morning on Friday as traders reacted to better-than-expected global data and local factory inflation numbers from Thursday.
“There is no data out today‚ so we are not expecting major movements from the rand. Yesterday saw better-than-expected UK GDP data which boosted emerging markets‚” said Mark Kalkwarf‚ a senior portfolio manager from the Iquad Group.
He added that yesterday’s producer inflation data indicated that consumer inflation could abate in the next couple of months.
At 11:.26‚ the rand was bid at R8.7432/$ from Thursday’s close of R8.7755. It was bid at R11.3151 the euro from its previous close of R11.3750 and at R14.0843 against sterling from R14.0618 before.
The euro was bid at $1.2945 from Thursday’s close of $1.2964.
“Gains in the rand were kept in check‚ however‚ after a very disappointing US earnings report overnight‚ which is negative for global growth. We also had bad data from the European Central bank which indicated that the private sector was contracting further‚ which led to euro weakness‚” Kalkwarf said.
