JOHANNESBURG - The rand struggled amid an empty domestic calendar, looking towards the Fed policy meeting for direction according to NKC Research.
In local news, South Africa approved the AstraZeneca Covid-19 for emergency use, while the regulator is in the process of reviewing rival applications, including from Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.
South Africa expects to receive a first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine in coming days from the Serum Institute of India (SII) at a cost of $5.25 (R80.33) per dose for the 1.5 million jabs ordered.
Meanwhile, opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA) announced that it has approached the courts to enforce more transparency from the ruling party with regard to the national inoculation strategy.
At the close of local trade, the rand quoted softer at R15.26/$, after trading in range of R15.03/$ - R15.26/$. The rand remained on the backfoot overnight. Expected range today R15.10/$ - R15.50/$.
South African bourse
The JSE All Share (-1.78 percent) ended in the red yesterday, dragged by losses in large resource (-3.77 percent) and technology (-1.87 percent) shares. In the overall EM sphere, the MSCI Emerging Market Index (-0.52 percent) traded lower.
Brent crude oil
The Brent oil price traded sideways yesterday as global Covid-19 cases continued to rack up. Meanwhile, the American Petroleum Institute reported that US crude stocks fell by 5.3 million barrels last week, versus analysts’ expectations of a 430,000-barrel increase. At the close of local trade, benchmark Brent crude futures quoted 0.36 percent lower at $55.68pb. Crude prices fell during Asian trade this morning.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE