During the local session the Rand sank against several of its most traded peers, posting a notable decline against the Pound and brushing an eight-week low against the US Dollar as concerns of a strike in one of South Africa’s most important sectors kept investors cautious.
The Pound Sterling/Rand exchange rate is currently in the region of 16.1997 as of 11:35 GMT
While the Rand was able to record a fleeting gain against its US counterpart, briefly snapping its longest bearish streak for five months, the commodity driven currency later pared its modest advance as concerns grew over the strike of workers from South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers.
The workers at producer Northam Platinum were striking over wages, and there are now concerns that top producers Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum could be affected.
The Rand’s downward trajectory prompted this response from Absa Capital analysts; ‘The Rand is now back at its weakest levels since early September. We think that there is scope for further depreciation in the short term, if this week’s US labour data proves to be stronger than expected.’
The GBP/ZAR exchange rate hit a high of 16.3038 Rand per Pound
As its stands economists are forecasting that US non-farm payrolls data (due out on Friday) will show that the US economy added 125,000 positions in October, and that the US unemployment rate rose to 7.3 per cent from 7.2 per cent.
However, if these figures should surprise to the upside and add to the case for the Federal Reserve tapering stimulus before the end of the year, emerging market currencies like the Rand could be adversely impacted.
The Rand also lost ground against Sterling today as the British asset was supported by surprisingly upbeat UK construction sector data.
Instead of the British construction sector expanding at a slower pace in October as forecast, construction output expanded at a more rapid rate last month than in September.
The week’s most influential South African data to be aware of includes the nation’s foreign exchange reserves report and mining/manufacturing production figures. All the data is due for release on Thursday.
Before then additional movement in the GBP/ZAR pairing could be inspired by tomorrow’s UK services PMI and Wednesday’s UK industrial/manufacturing production reports.
Current South African (ZAR) Exchange Rates:
< Down > Up
The US Dollar/South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 10.1490 >
The Pound Sterling/South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 16.1997 >
The Euro/South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 13.7005 >
The Australian Dollar/South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 9.6051 >
The New Zealand Dollar/South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently in the region of 8.0934 >
The Canadian Dollar/South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently trading in the region of 9.7303 –
(Correct as of 11:35 GMT)
Comments are closed.