Rand loses ground across the board

Johannesburg. — The rand lost ground across the board yesterday, giving up early-session gains in line with emerging-market currencies.
“We are in for a wild ride as we await clarity from the Reserve Bank this afternoon. In the meantime, expect extreme volatility,” Bidvest Bank chief currency dealer Ion de Vleeschauwer said.

The rand strengthened to R10,89 to the dollar in early trade but subsequently lost ground to R11,18 to the dollar, the Turkish lira also gave up its gains.

At 11.52am, the rand was at R11,1407 to the dollar from its overnight close of R10,9379.
Against the euro‚ the rand was at R15,2346 from R14,9363 at Tuesday’s close, and was at R18,4751 to the pound from R18,1144 at its previous close.

The euro was at US$1,3674 from US$1,3653 at its previous close.
Absa Research analysts said in note that they expected the rand to weaken if the Reserve Bank did not hike rates yesterday or at the very least signal imminent tightening in the policy statement, because South Africa was likely to be regarded by investors as more vulnerable to the downturn in emerging-markets sentiment. — Businessday.