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Johannesburg - The rand was slightly softer against the
dollar on Friday as it followed the euro on its slide while market players felt
better about Africa’s largest economy after the finance minister pledged to
keep spending in check.
The rand was at R8.750 against the greenback at 06:58 GMT
from Thursday’s close of R8.7441 in New York.
“For now the rand is remaining on a weaker bias,” said Brigid
Taylor, head of institutional sales at Nedbank.
“We’re looking to buy dips and targeting at the moment.
We’re targeting R8.85, but we’ll potentially trade around the R9 level before
year end.”
The euro declined for a third straight session against the
dollar, as uncertainty persisted in the single currency zone on whether Spain
will seek a bailout.
South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan on Thursday
said in presenting the interim budget the country’s finances were fundamentally
sound despite downgrades from two global credit ratings agencies.
“The minister managed to do some smooth maneuvering by
actually keeping the expenditure numbers unchanged from the budgeted numbers,”
said Johan Rossouw, an economist at Vunani Securities.
Treasury projected a 2012/2013 budget deficit at 4.8% of GDP and the deficit is projected to fall to 3.1% by 2015/16.
The 3-year bond yield rose half a basis points to 5.48% and
that on the longer-dated bond added 3.5 basis points to 7.775%.
Treasury will sell a total of R800m of inflation-linked bonds spread between the I2025, I2038 and I2050 issues at 09:00 GMT.
