Rand gains for first day in six, but is still at one-month low
The rand broke a five-day losing streak on Wednesday afternoon, but remained at a one-month low, after the ANC announced plans to boost the economy.
On Wednesday, the party gave feedback on decisions taken to revive the economy, at its national executive committee(NEC) meeting at the weekend. These include a plan for Eskom by the end of October.
“At this point, as long as the market is seeing constructive action being taken and the government is not just kicking the can down the road, there exists some sort of optimism,” said Mercato Financial Services analyst Nico Du Plessis.
At 3pm, the rand had firmed 0.59% to R15.2376/$, leading gains in emerging-market currencies, according to Bloomberg data. It had strengthened 0.55% to R16.6682/€ and 0.87% to R18.7033/£. The euro was flat at $1.0939.
“The rand has weakened a lot. Probably a bit too much given the negativity that one is seeing globally. It does seem a bit over-done in the short term and we may see it strengthen towards the end of this week or early next week,” Du Plessis said.
Gold added 0.99% to $1,493.97/oz and platinum 0.71% to $883.53. Brent crude was up 0.71% to $58.7 a barrel.
Source: businesslive.co.za
