Rand firms ahead of factory data release
The rand was firmer on Tuesday morning, in its first day of gains this week, while focus shifts to manufacturing production data later in the day.
Statistics SA is expected to release manufacturing production for October. The median forecast is a contraction of 2.6% from one of 2.4% in the previous month, according to a Bloomberg poll.
The rand weakened on Monday evening after Eskom said it would implement load-shedding to stage 6, cutting 6,000MW. Late on Monday night, Eskom downgraded load-shedding to stage 4, making this the sixth consecutive day of power cuts.
“With stage 6 being downgraded to stage 4 and upcoming risk events in the form of central bank decisions [European Central Bank and US Federal Reserve], local data and the upcoming UK elections all in play, investors may well stay on the sidelines for now,” Mercato Financial Services analyst Nico Du Plessis said.
At 10.32am, the rand had firmed 0.12% to R14.6536/$ after closing at R14.6805. It was little changed at R16.2265/€ and R19.262/£. The euro was flat at $1.1073.
The R2030 government bond was weaker, with the yield rising four basis points to 9.2%. Bond yields move inversely to their prices.
Gold was flat at $1,462.97/oz while platinum added 0.98% to $903.04. Brent crude added 0.12% to $64.14 a barrel.
Source: businesslive.co.za