The South African rand was hovering just below the R7,10 per dollar early on Wednesday morning in quiet trade.
While the rand’s weakness appeared to be overdone, there was no sign of a
recovery, currency traders said.
At 8.42am, the rand was bid at R7,0678 per dollar from an overnight close of
7,0600. It was bid at R8,9218 to the euro from a previous R8,9086 and at R13,0380
against sterling from Tuesday’s R13,0079.
The euro was bid at $1,2614 from $1,2584 late on Tuesday, while gold was quoted at $578,45 a troy ounce from a previous $575,20/oz.
“The rand is hanging around R7,10. Through there we would look for R7,14,” a currency trader said.
He added that there was really no change from Tuesday and while the rand’s weakness looked overdone, there was “no sign of a pullback”.
“It will have to break below R7 to stabilise. As long as it is above R7, there is a danger of a move to R7,20,” the trader concluded.
On Tuesday morning, the rand broke above R7,00 per dollar for the first time
since May 2004 to touch a worst level of R7,1020. – I-Net Bridge