JOHANNESBURG - The rand remained on the back foot against the US dollar during European trade yesterday according to NKC Research.
The South African currency weakened sharply overnight on Wednesday after recent strong US data releases increased expectations of higher US interest rates, which encouraged capital outflows from emerging markets. Further strong US employment data released on Thursday continued to support elevated US Treasury bond yields. At the close of local trade, the rand quoted 0.4 percent weaker at R14.72/$, after trading in the range of R14.60/$ - R14.77/$. The rand traded weaker overnight. Expected range today R14.65/$ - R14.90/$.
South African bourse
The JSE All Share (-0.3 percent) lower yesterday. Shares were lower across the board except for mining (+2.45 percent), which continued to shine. In the overall emerging market sphere, the MSCI Emerging Market Index (-2.4 percent) traded lower. In local news, gold mining shares, such as DRD Gold (+5.6 percent), Sibanye (+3 percent) and Harmony (+2.2 percent) benefited from the stronger gold price.
Markets
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