Johannesburg – The rand was softer at noon on Tuesday after France was downgraded by Moody’s.
Global rating agency Moody's Investors Service cut France's credit rating to Aa1 from Aaa on Tuesday‚ keeping a negative outlook on the rating‚ in line with rating agency Standard & Poor's downgrade in January.
“The rand is weaker due to the downgrade of France by Moody’s‚ although the euro has not lost value due to this. We should trade in a narrow range in the next couple of days - likely between R8.80 to R8.90 - ahead of the South African Reserve Bank’s MPC’s rate decision due at 3pm on Thursday‚” a local trader said.
Market consensus is for no change in the repo rate.
At 11:51‚ the rand was bid at R8.8703/$ from Monday’s close of R8.8498 and compared with R8.81 at around 18:00 on Monday.
The local currency was bid at R11.3491/€ from its previous close of R11.2928 and at R14.1080 against sterling from R14.0554 before.
The euro was bid at $1.2791‚ from Monday’s close of $1.2766.