The rand remained on the sidelines at midday on Tuesday‚ in anticipation of CPI figures to be released on Wednesday and the MPC announcement on Thursday.
“The rand is a bit tossed and turned today. Markets are waiting on the data due throughout the rest of the week‚” said Ockert van Niekerk‚ head of trading at PSG.
At 11.37am‚ the rand was bid at R8.8382 to the US dollar from R8.8559 at Monday’s close. The local currency was bid at R11.7500 to the euro from its previous close of R11.7830 and at R13.9712 against sterling from R14.0153 before.
The euro was bid at $1.3295 from Monday’s close of $1.3309.
“Gwede Mantashe also spoke this morning and made a couple of loose comments about mines which the markets interpreted as negative and quickly dropped after having recovered slightly‚” said Van Niekerk.