rand on front foot
01 Aug 2008

The rand remained firm in early trade on Friday but was off its best levels, having bounced off 7.30 per dollar first thing in the morning.   Traders said the main event for today will be US non-farm payroll data, which might give some impetus to the dollar.

By 08.50am the rand was bid at 7.3178 to the dollar from a previous close of 7.3200. It was bid at 11.4100 to the euro from a previous 11.4223 and at 14.5376 against sterling from 14.4913 before.   The euro was bid at $1.5569 from $1.5596 overnight, while gold was quoted at $910.85 a troy ounce from $913.17/oz overnight.

The rand firmed briefly below 7.30 on Thursday after local trade data came in much better then expected.  South Africa recorded a deficit of R184-million for its trade with non- Southern African Customs Union trading partners in June after the R1.7-billion deficit in May, according to Customs & Excise figures released on Thursday.

A R5.2-billion deficit was expected, a survey by I-Net Bridge had found. Forecasts varied from a R4.3-billion deficit to a R6.0-billion deficit. RMB analysts said in their morning report that with May data also having outperformed there does now seem to be evidence that the trade account is bottoming out.

Jacqueline Mackenzie, I-Net Bridge, www.iafrica.com