The rand remained flat on Tuesday (1 October)‚ but performing worse than most of its emerging-market peers‚ due to the weaker South African trade balance and disappointing manufacturing numbers.
"The majority of the emerging-market currencies are trading slightly stronger against the dollar‚ while the rand has found itself among the few to have weakened slightly‚" ETM Analytics market analyst Sean McCalgan said. "This tells us the weakness can be attributed to local factors."
At 12.midday‚ the rand was bid at R10.0317 to the dollar compared with Monday's close of R10.0254. Against the euro‚ the rand was bid at R13.5876 from its previous close of R13.5514 and was at R16.2816 against sterling from R16.2402 at its previous close.
The euro was bid at US$1.3543 from US$1.3522 at Monday's close.
The seasonally adjusted Kagiso purchasing managers index (PMI) fell steeply in September‚ by 7.4 index points‚ to a worse than expected 49.1‚ data on Tuesday (1 October) showed. This is the first time in five months there has been a contraction in the index.
SA's trade deficit‚ which measures the difference between the country's imports and exports‚ widened to R19.1bn in August from R13.4bn the previous month.
"The PMI number has given us a quantitative measure of how the manufacturing industry has been affected by recent strikes‚" McCalgan said.
"This is expected to feed through to mining and manufacturing data in the months ahead‚ which along with the large trade deficit‚ poses significant risks for the rand," McCalgan added.
