MICHAEL METELITS, Johannesburg | Thursday 5.00pm.
THE rand continued stronger on Thursday, bringing bonds and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange along with it although gains were muted all around. Trading was spare before the holidays and dealers repeatedly suggested the markets were “looking for direction”, indicating potentially volatile swings.
The rand closed at R5,95 to the dollar, a gain of four cents on Thursday’s open of R5,99 and traded in a narrow range of R5,96 to R6,01 on the day. Dealers thought the rand had found a bottom at R5,96 but that was temporary.
“Guys were sitting long on dollars and are unwinding,” one trader said. Hedge funds were definitely back in the market, trying to push the rand down with big orders.
The stronger currency gave courage to the bond markets, still recovering from Wednesday’s 65 basis point swings. The R150 closed at a best level on the day of 16,27%. Dealers would be happier with a rand further from R6 to the dollar and expected thin, volatile trade until the new year.
The JSE saw mild gains, with all indices in the black. The all share index gained 15,42 points to 5251,40 and industrial index rose 56,60 points to 5966,80.
Financials, normally the most volatile index, picked up 58,25 points to close at 7865,60 and the all gold index managed a 6,96 points hike to 949,10.
Asia continued to feel the effects of banking problems as Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 105 points, and the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 47. European indices were more positive as London’s FTSE-100 was up 17 points and Frankfurt’s DAX gained 40 by the end of the day.