Johannesburg – The rand showed a firmer bias in early trade on Friday after sliding more than 10 cents to the US dollar on Thursday on a combination of factors that included downbeat domestic mining and manufacturing data.
At 08:49‚ the rand was bid at R8.6832/$ from Thursday’s close of R8.7034. It was bid at R11.0973/€ from its previous close of R11.0873 and at R13.9025/£ from R13.8956 before.
The euro was bid at $1.2780 from Thursday’s close of $1.2740.
“South African fundamentals are again at play for the rand‚” RMB analysts said in a note.
“Poor manufacturing and mining data showed the effect of the strikes and took USD/ZAR to 8.74‚” RMB said.
The bank said trading next week could be affected by the vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma.
“For now‚” RMB said‚ “USD/ZAR looks to drop back to under the 8.70 level‚ tracking a weaker dollar‚ all well within the multiday range of 8.60–80.”