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“The market is nervous after breaking through R9.36/$‚ and the trend is continuing weaker‚” a local trader said.
At 11:39 the rand was bid at R9.4716/$ from R9.4002 at Friday’s close and R9.3102 at Thursday’s close.
The local currency was bid at R12.1615/ € from its previous close of R11.8525 and was at R14.3747 against sterling from R14.2230 at its previous close.
The euro was bid at $1.2849 from $1.2828 at Friday’s close.
Although the rand fell victim last week to broad-based US dollar strength‚ the fact that the local unit continued to depreciate on a trade-weighted basis as well as in relation to its commodity and emerging market currency peers confirmed that a significant part of last week’s rand depreciation was a function of heightened SA-specific risks‚ Absa Capital said.
“The US dollar has strengthened on the back of encouraging US data flow and hawkish remarks from some Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members. This week all eyes will be on Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s testimony to Congress and FOMC minutes on Wednesday‚ as these events will provide more insight into whether the Fed is indeed likely to cut back on some of its quantitative easing measures sooner than expected‚” the bank said.
