The rand held steady at noon amid signs of consolidation after a slide in the previous session on a combination of factors that included downbeat domestic mining and manufacturing data.
At 11.38am‚ the rand was bid at R8.6955 to the US dollar from Thursday’s close of R8.7034. It was bid at R11.0761 to the euro from its previous close of R11.0873 and at R13.8972 against sterling from R13.8956 before.
The euro was bid at $1.2741 from Thursday’s close of $1.2740.
Absa Capital said in a note the disappointing data highlighted South Africa’s fragile macroeconomic backdrop and the kept the door open for further credit rating downgrades. - I-Net Bridge