Rand falls 10c on exporter demand

The rand was weake on Wednesday (21 August) because of a rise in exporter interest and a continued weaker bias ahead of the release of the minutes of the last US Federal Reserve policy meeting.

By Madeleine van Niekerk

21 Aug 2013

In late morning trade the rand was bid at R10.2388 to the dollar from Tuesday's close of R10.1361 and Monday's close of R10.1720.

Against the euro‚ the rand was bid at R13.7135 from its previous close of R13.6087 and was at R16.0431 against sterling from R15.8788 at its previous close.

The euro was bid at US$1.3395 from $1.3418 at Tuesday's close and US$1.3336 at Monday's close.

"The rand has been weakening for the past couple of weeks in line with other emerging-market currencies‚" Rand Merchant Bank currency trader Jim Bryson said.

"The weakness today is not rand-specific and the currency is still in ranges. If the rand weakens to R10.35/R10.40 to the dollar‚ then it could weaken to R10.70/R10.80‚" Bryson said.

"The release of the minutes from the last US Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting on Wednesday (21 August at 8pm local time) will have a big influence on the US dollar either way.

"The local consumer price index (CPI) figure was a bit higher than expected‚ but does not normally have a big influence on the rand. The rand is trading softer due to exporter interest‚" he said.

SA's consumer price index (CPI) rose to 6.3% year-on-year in July from a 5.5% year-on-year increase in June‚ Statistics SA (Stats SA) said.

The inflation rate was expected to have come in at 6.2% year on year‚ according to a survey of leading economists by I-Net Bridge.

Source: I-Net Bridge

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