Madeleine van Niekerk
THE rand was firmer at noon on Monday (25/02/2013)‚ as the euro rebounded from Friday’s losses.
There is a deluge of local events this week that could push the rand in either direction. The currency market is keenly awaiting the local fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figures out on Tuesday at 11.30am.
On Wednesday the 2013-14 budget will be release at 2pm‚ and the January foreign trade balance will come out at 2pm on Thursday.
"We have been trading in a range between R8.85 and R8.95 to the dollar for a while now‚ with nothing new out there to push the rand either way‚” Iquad Group currency dealer Mark Kalkwarf said.
"There is a lot of pressure on the local government to cut interest rates‚ especially with the low interest rate scenario worldwide.
"If interest rates are cut‚ however‚ the possibility of foreign money inflows into our markets could reduce because the investors would earn less on their investments‚” he said.
"Foreign investors could then take their money elsewhere‚ such as Turkey and Brazil‚ where they could get a better return on their investment.
"US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech on the third round of quantitative easing on Tuesday evening could be a currency mover‚” Mr Kalkwarf said.
"If he says that the US is going to limit bond buying in their markets‚ it would be bad for the rand because there would be less money to invest into our local market.”
At 12.17pm‚ the rand was bid at R8.8647 to the dollar from R88.8871 at Friday’s close.
The local currency was bid at R11.7289 to the euro from its previous close of R11.6888 and at R13.4040 against sterling from R13.4277 before.
The euro was bid at $1.3239 from $1.3191 at Friday’s close. © BDlive 2013
