Rand having its best month since January, breaking below R14/$
The rand led a basket of emerging-market currencies stronger on Monday morning as it moved below R14/$ shortly before the JSE opened.
Much of the dollar’s weakness over the past few days has been driven by positive sentiment towards the first phase of a US-China trade deal being reached. The trade war between the world’s two biggest economies, which will enter its third year in January, has had a deleterious effect on global GDP growth, with emerging markets bearing the brunt of it.
At 10.17am the rand was 0.44% firmer at R13.9663/$, breaking through the psychological R14 level for the second time in as many trading days, after briefly moving below it on Friday. The rand previously breached the threshold on July 10. At the same time, it had gained 0.25% to R15.6446/€ and 0.1% to R18.3044/£.
The rand is the second-best performing emerging-market currency over the past month, according to Bloomberg data, only marginally eclipsed by the Mexican peso.
So far in December, the rand has gained 4.7% to the dollar, making this its best month since January, when it appreciated 7.65% to the greenback.
Other currencies the rand has outperformed over the period include the Brazilian real, the Korean won, the Polish zloty and the Turkish lira.
Soon after opening the JSE all share was 0.18% higher at 57,528 points, remaining on track to deliver a positive return for the year after 2018’s decline of 11%. Year to date the index is up nearly 9%.
Source: businesslive.co.za