Rand holds steady against US dollar

Published May 23, 2014

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Johannesburg - South Africa's rand held steady against the dollar on Friday, lacking momentum to break through a key resistance area at the 10.30 level after a rally in the previous session.

The rand traded at 10.3400 to the dollar at 08:18 SA time, off a 10.3280 close in New York on Thursday.

The unit was coming off a week high hit the previous session after a central bank monetary policy statement that investors perceived as hawkish.

The South African Reserve Bank kept interest rates unchanged at 5.5 percent but reiterated that the Bank was still in a tightening cycle.

Central bank Governor Gill Marcus said two of the seven MPC members had voted to raise interest rates.

The combination of Marcus' hawkish comments and global appetite for high yielding assets buoyed the rand.

With little scheduled on the local and global calendar, the rand may struggle to take meaningful strides past its previous high.

“Given the lack of follow-through in dollar/rand, and with the US and UK heading into long weekends, we are settling for a continuation of the recent consolidation near term,” said Judy Padayachee, technical strategist for Barclays Africa.

“We are watching the 10.45 and 10.27 levels into month-end.”

Yields on government bonds nudged down half a basis point to 8.02 percent on the benchmark 2026 issue.

South Africa has offered 800 million rand in 2025, 2038 and 2050 inflation-linked bonds at 11:00 SA time. - Reuters

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