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Johannesburg – The rand was in “extremely” volatile territory on Thursday afternoon due to a combination of negative foreign headlines on the local platinum mining woes that spread from platinum miner Lonmin to Anglo American Platinum on Wednesday‚ and on the back of weak local current account figures released on Tuesday.
At 16:09‚ the rand was bid at R8.3377 to the dollar from R8.1711 at Tuesday’s close. It was bid at R10.7527 to the euro from its previous close of R10.5111 and at R13.4093 against sterling from R13.1373 before. The euro was bid at $1.2897 from $1.2856 at Tuesday’s close.
“The rand had a negative knee-jerk reaction to the mining unrest news today‚ falling more than 2% on the news‚ but it has calmed down a little since then‚” a local trader said.
The South African current account deficit widened to 6.4% of gross domestic product in the second quarter from a 4.9% deficit in the first quarter‚ it was announced on Tuesday.
At 16:09‚ the rand was bid at R8.3377 to the dollar from R8.1711 at Tuesday’s close. It was bid at R10.7527 to the euro from its previous close of R10.5111 and at R13.4093 against sterling from R13.1373 before. The euro was bid at $1.2897 from $1.2856 at Tuesday’s close.
“The rand had a negative knee-jerk reaction to the mining unrest news today‚ falling more than 2% on the news‚ but it has calmed down a little since then‚” a local trader said.
The South African current account deficit widened to 6.4% of gross domestic product in the second quarter from a 4.9% deficit in the first quarter‚ it was announced on Tuesday.
