Johannesburg – The rand weakened slightly shortly before noon on Thursday as traders eye the European Union Summit‚ which starts today.
“The reason why the rand is slightly weaker at the moment is that the local currency received trend line support at R8.55 against the dollar and it bounced of that level‚” said Mark Kalkwarf‚ a senior portfolio manager at the Iquad Group.
At 11:31‚ the rand was bid at R8.6176/$ from Wednesday’s close of R8.6017. It was bid at R11.3041/€ from its previous close of R11.2780‚ and at R13.9189/£ from R13.8737 before.
The euro was bid at $1.3124 from Wednesday’s close of $1.3111.
“The rand is stronger this week for a number of reasons‚ one being the increase in risk appetite due to better-than-expected US housing data and expectations that China’s economy has started bottoming out.
"This is rand positive as traders are expecting them to start buying again‚” he added.
Kalkwarf said that all eyes would be on the EU summit today as traders were expecting Greece to ask for a second bailout.