South Africa's rand steady, stocks open higher

  • Reuters
  • Forex News
South Africa's rand steady, stocks open higher

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 7 (Reuters) - South Africa's rand steadied against the dollar early on Wednesday as traders awaited the outcome of Thursday's European Central Bank policy meeting, which may set the tone for currency markets.

* At 0700 GMT, the rand ZAR=D3 traded at 13.6875 per dollar, not far off its New York close of 13.6725 on Tuesday.

* There are expectations that the ECB will change the terms of its asset-buying programme to alleviate a shortage of bonds and extend the stimulus beyond its current end date in March 2017.

* "All focus is on the ECB: the more they ease the better for the rand, notably on EUR/ZAR ," Rand Merchant Bank analyst John Cairns said.

* On the stock market, the Top-40 .JTOPI index was up 0.8 percent while the broader all-share .JALSH rose 0.49 percent in early trade.

* In fixed income, the yield for the benchmark government bond due in 2026 ZAR186= dipped 3.5 basis points to 8.91 percent.

Add Chart to Comment

Comment Guidelines

We encourage you to use comments to engage with users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind: 

  • Enrich the conversation
  • Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
  • Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically.
  •  Use standard writing style. Include punctuation and upper and lower cases.
  • NOTE: Spam and/or promotional messages and links within a comment will be removed
  • Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user.
  • Don’t Monopolize the Conversation. We appreciate passion and conviction, but we also believe strongly in giving everyone a chance to air their thoughts. Therefore, in addition to civil interaction, we expect commenters to offer their opinions succinctly and thoughtfully, but not so repeatedly that others are annoyed or offended. If we receive complaints about individuals who take over a thread or forum, we reserve the right to ban them from the site, without recourse.
  • Only English comments will be allowed.

Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.

Drop an image here or Supported formats: *.jpg, *.png, *.gif up to 5mb

Error: File type not supported

Drop an image here or

100
Please try another search