Rand strengthens on US holiday

Graphic: renjith krishnan

Graphic: renjith krishnan

Published Nov 12, 2012

Share

The rand strengthened against the US dollar on Monday morning as US markets were closed for a public holiday.

“Now that the US presidential election and Greek austerity vote are out of the way‚ participants are firmly focused on how the US fiscal cliff issue is likely to pan out‚” Absa Capital said in a note. “Today is a public holiday in the US‚ but all eyes will be on US policy makers for the remainder of the week and for a number of weeks thereafter in order to see how America will handle its debt burden.”

At 8.22am‚ the rand was bid at R8.6787 to the US dollar from Friday’s close of R8.6935. The local currency was bid at R11.0502 to the euro from its previous close of R11.0676 and at R13.8116 against sterling from R13.8327 before.

The euro was bid at $1.2729 from Friday’s close of $1.2722.

RMB said in a note on Monday: “Greece remains a concern. The country is unlikely to get its next aid tranche approved at today’s eurozone finance ministers’ meeting‚ raising questions on how it will repay the EUR5 billion it owes to the ECB (European Central Bank) at the end of the week.” - I-Net Bridge

Related Topics: