South Africa’s rand recouped some of its losses against the dollar on Wednesday, while stocks also turned positive after the United States Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank led a coordinated round of global official rate cuts to ease the credit crunch.
At 1.12pm, the rand traded at 9,21 against the greenback after firming to around 9,00 from its 9,31 level just before the cuts were announced. The domestic currency had earlier dropped more than 5% to 9,45/dollar, its weakest level since January 2002, according to Reuters data.
South African stocks, which earlier fell as much as 5%, turned positive on the rate-cut news as global equities rebounded. The top-40 index of blue-chips rose 0,73% by 1.07pm while the all-share index rose 0,5%. —