Johannesburg – The rand weakened on Thursday afternoon as fears over the US fiscal cliff triggered safe-haven purchasing.
“The worry about the fiscal cliff in the US has caused investors to take their money from other currencies and purchase safe-haven currencies like the dollar. The ongoing problems in the eurozone are also not good for investor sentiment‚” Mark Kalkwarf‚ a senior portfolio manager from the Iquad Group said.
At 15:32‚ the rand was bid at R8.9839/$ from Wednesday’s close of R8.9020. The local currency was bid at R11.4494 to the euro from its previous close of R11.3279 and at R14.2242 against sterling from R14.0958 before.
The euro was bid at $1.2755 from Wednesday’s close of $1.2729.