Johannesburg – The domestic currency market failed to translate CPI figures and an end to the farm strikes into a positive move during midday trade on Wednesday.
Mark Kalkwarf‚ senior portfolio manager at the Iquad Group‚ said it was surprising that the rand hadn’t experienced any rebound in response to the farm strikes being called off.
“The strike was blamed for much of the rand’s recent weakness‚ and has been called off before‚ but like mine strikes‚ it could flare up again and the markets could be taking a wait-and-see approach‚” he said.
At 11.31am‚ the rand was bid at R8.8851 to the US dollar from R8.8436 at Tuesday’s close. The local currency was bid at R11.8217 to the euro from its previous close of R11.7675 and at R14.0791 against sterling from R13.9952 before.
The euro was bid at $1.3313 from Tuesday’s close of $1.3312.
“We’ve had some rather disturbing reports that the rand should be weaker despite the global economic improvement‚” said Kalkwarf. - I-Net Bridge