Rand remains firm
Article By: Jacqueline Mackenzie
Mon, 19 May 2008 09:00
The rand remained firm in early trade on Monday and is expected to consolidate after its recent strong run. Events of importance this week includes a speech by Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni on Thursday, which players will be watching for any hints whether the country will get another interest rate increase next month.
By 09:00 the rand was bid at 7.4633 to the dollar from a previous close of 7.4632. It was bid at 11.6299 to the euro from a previous 11.6415 and at 14.5685 against sterling from 14.5886 before.
The euro was bid at $1.5575 from $1.5594 overnight, while gold was quoted at $907.55 a troy ounce from $899.60/oz overnight.
RMB analysts said in their morning report that that rand has had a remarkable run, trading down from a high of 8.25 two months ago to break the key 7.48 level on Friday.
While possible foreign direct investment deals are helping, really the key has been the remarkable turn in international sentiment, they said.
"For now positive sentiment is dominant, the market managing to shrug off data that showed US consumer confidence fell to a fresh 28-year low while Japanese business confidence hit a five-year low. Gold also managed to push back above $900/oz and we have more details in the Financial Times this morning about how a MTN/Bharti deal is progressing.
"Local violence against foreigners creates some negative headlines but foreign investors will at least probably see talk of staged Eskom price hikes as a positive," RMB said.
They expect the rand to trade in a 7.39/40 — 7.53 range for the day.