Rand falls on power cuts, risk-off sentiment

The rand weakened on Wednesday, as the country continued to be battered by its worst rolling blackouts on record and as markets moved away from riskier assets.

At 13:52, the rand traded at R19.27 against the dollar.

The dollar last traded around 0.09% weaker against a basket of global currencies.

“The rand has struggled for any traction through the first half of the week,” said Danny Greeff of ETM Analytics, as sentiment towards riskier currencies like the rand soured.

“Simultaneously, there is very little in the way of positive news flow out of South Africa for investors to focus on.”

South Africa’s struggling state utility Eskom reinstated the worst rolling blackouts on record, which mean up to 12 hours of power cuts for most households per day.

Adding fuel to the fire, petrol and diesel prices were also hiked on Wednesday, hurting Africa’s most industrialised economy.

This exacerbates the country’s fiscal crisis and deters investment in the rand and government bonds, Greeff added.

On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the blue-chip Top 40 and the broader all-share indexes were both last trading over 0.9% weaker.

South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond was stronger, with the yield down 4 basis points to 10.370%.