Rand at 8.34 against the US dollar

Graphic: Renjith Krishnan.

The rand strengthened in the afternoon on Tuesday as traders react to Reserve Bank governor Gill Marcus’ comments about the South African economy.

“The rand remains under pressure; it lost ground against the US dollar but is currently off of its weaker levels. Given the euro’s strength against the dollar‚ the rand should be stronger‚” said Tony van Dyk‚ a currency trader from the Iquad group.

At 3.46pm‚ the rand was bid at R8.3444 to the dollar from R8.3556 at Monday’s close. It was bid at R10.7912 to the euro from its previous close of R10.7709 and at R13.4650 against sterling from R13.4737 before.

The euro was bid at $1.2936 from $1.2889 at Monday’s close.

“The manufacturing data from yesterday was still a hangover and comments from Gill Marcus about how difficult it was for them to keep the rates unchanged at the last MPC meeting. A rate cut is not good for the rand‚” Van Dyk said. - I-Net Bridge