The South African rand remained strong against major currencies in late-afternoon trade on Tuesday after rallying to its best level since December 1998 earlier in the afternoon when dollar sales saw stop losses triggered at R5,68.
Currency traders said the rand was likely to take its cue from the euro for the rest of the day.
At 3.41pm, the rand was quoted at R5,6795 per dollar from an overnight close of R5,7196. Its intraday best level of R5,6590 was its strongest since December 2 1998.
The rand was quoted at R7,5886 to the euro from a previous R7,6480 and at R10,9710 against sterling from Monday’s R11,1220.
The euro was quoted at $1,3382 from $1,3396 late on Monday, while gold was quoted at $441,80 a troy ounce from a previous $442,43/oz.
“We got good support for the rand out of European circles and also local exporters, which drove it through the technical level at R5,68,” a currency trader said. “It touched R5,66, but has had a subsequent bounce on the retracement of the euro off its highs.”
He added that the rand was likely to continue to take its cue from the euro for the rest of the day.
“I would imagine it could drift as high [weak] as R5,70 to R5,71 [today], but we should encounter [dollar] selling at those levels,” the trader concluded.
The rand tends to follow the euro because the Eurozone is South Africa’s largest trading partner. — I-Net Bridge