Rand is weaker as traders fret about deadly virus
The rand, which lost significant ground against major currencies amid this week’s emerging-market sell-off, remained on the back foot on Friday morning as investors waited for news on the coronavirus outbreak.
On Thursday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the virus outbreak a global health emergency as the it spread to more countries, and the death toll climbed.
“The coronavirus remains the main driver in markets at the moment, with the rising number of infections and deaths being offset by the WHO expressing confidence in China’s response to the outbreak,” said TreasuryOne analysts in a note.
The local currency has weakened 3.13% against the dollar this week, and has lost 6.07% so far in 2020.
At 11.16, the rand had weakened 0.51% to R14.8359/$, 0.48% to R16.3597/€ and 0.84% to R19.4890/£. The euro was flat at $1.1027.
The R2030 government bond was weaker, with the yield rising three basis points to 9.025%. Bond yields move inversely to bond price.
Eskom implemented stage 2 load-shedding on Friday, which will continue until 6am on Monday.
Source: businesslive.co.za
