The South African rand was steady against the dollar, but slightly weaker against the euro and sterling just before noon on Monday in a nervous market. Currency traders said that the rand was likely to remain range bound in the short term, but saw it weakening later in the day when US markets opened.
At 1132, the rand was trading at 8,1900 to the dollar from a New York of 8,2125. It
shed over seven cents against sterling to trade at 12,8730 from Friday’s 12,8006, while it was quoted at 8,7001 to the euro from a previous 8,6725.
The euro was trading at $1,0628 from $1,0595 late Friday in New York, while gold was quoted at $329,55 an ounce from a close of $325,43/oz. A currency trader said that the war in Iraq was making for a very nervous market and that trade was very thin.
“There are guys who want to sell dollars at the higher levels, but there are people
who want to buy at 8,15 to 8,16 and the rand is caught in a fairly tight range,” she
added.
The trader saw the rand trading between 8,15 and 8,24 to the dollar in the short
term.
She cautioned, however, that there was a feeling in the market that the rand was
looking to weaken when New York came into the market and that it could break above 8,30 per dollar by Tuesday.
She said that this was due to a “bit of a nervous reaction” over Iraq and that even
with the dollar looking weak, people seemed to “tackle the rand”. – I-Net-Bridge