One step forward is a few steps backward for Zimbabwe.

The past week we saw some incredible GBP strength, moving the Sterling to the highest point against many currencies since the Brexit referendum result last year. This comes as UK political uncertainty is reduced, following an unexpected early agreement on a Brexit transition deal. As such, the Rand weakened against the Pound, however, the local currency remained in a tight range against the USD.

Last week saw the South African Rand weaken to its lowest in more than two weeks in a major sell-off of emerging market currencies. Most EM currencies came under pressure as the war of words between the U.S. and China about imposing tariffs escalated, posing fears of a global trade war.

Last week saw the Rand weaken by as much as 2%, reaching a low of 11.89 to the Dollar on Thursday before closing at 11.83 before the Easter weekend. After the holidays, the Rand has been gravitating around a support level of 11.84 to the Dollar.

Over the last week we saw numerous data events. In the UK, we had inflation data which came in lower than expected, the negative effect of which was counteracted by a drop in the unemployment rate in the UK. Following the two days of volatility brought on by these events, we had an even more […]

The main South African Rand-related event in focus this week is Friday’s rating review by Moody’s Investor Service agency.

The past week has shown that the near-future is looking good for the South African Rand. The local currency has become sturdier under the leadership of the increasingly reform-orientated Cyril Ramaphosa. This Monday, the ZAR opened with steady gains after maintaining the strong position it notched up last week. This strength was seen even as the US Federal Reserve seems to be hinting that it will accelerate its pace of interest rate increases this year.

The local currency weakened below the 12.00 psychological threshold, reaching a low of 12.02 to the Dollar at 09:30 yesterday. The Rand went on to recover to a high of 11.82 Rand to the Dollar as of 09:40 this morning. Recent Rand strength has been shown to be delicate in the shadow of global developments, with the local currency weakening as investors drop riskier assets for safer investments as a result of a looming US-led trade war.

The Rand has been buoyed by positive sentiment since last week’s Budget speech and rumours of a Cabinet reshuffle on the cards at the ANC National Executive Committee. Further support was expected during and after last night’s reshuffling of Malusi Gigaba and the reappointment of Nhlanhla Nene as Finance Minister.

Last week the Rand experienced its strongest week of 2018. The local currency gained 3% with Cyril Ramaphosa being sworn in as South Africa’s president after Jacob Zuma’s much hoped for resignation. Advances were made against the US Dollar from R12.02 to R11.62 by Friday’s close. In anticipation leading up to Zuma’s exit speech, the Rand held onto recent strength and began making further gains on Wednesday evening when Zuma addressed the nation and resigned as South Africa’s president.

The Rand held firm in the 11.90s to the Dollar on Monday as speculation around #Zexit grew to a fever pitch as positive sentiment pushed the Rand to a peak of R11.88 to the Dollar, while the rumour mill continued to churn out talk that Zuma had decided to resign. The presidency rejected these rumours as “fake news” and following that, the Rand traded in a narrow band to close at R11.94 to the Dollar yesterday.

With a 19% gain by the end of January, the Rand has just had its best three-month run in over ten years, more than doubling the performance of the second-best performing currency in the same time-frame.

The Rand has gained 15% since November to achieve levels not seen since mid-2015, reaching a low of 11.80 to the USD on 25 January. This run of growth highlights the ZAR as the best-performing currency against the Dollar out of 31 major currencies tracked on Bloomberg in the last three months.

The Rand is fresh off a two-and-a-half-year high as its stellar 2018 run continues. This morning it reached highs of R12.08 to the US Dollar, an exchange rate last seen in June 2015. This comes as no surprise against the backdrop of recent political developments, a weaker Dollar, as well as healthy commodity prices and strong local bond-yields.

It has been a volatile start to the year, with thin liquidity in the market as many traders weren’t in the market after the end of year break.

The ANC Elective Conference has given the rand a real shot in the arm

It’s an anxious yet exciting week ahead for the Rand and the South African economy as a whole. With only one week to go before the ANC elective conference, tensions are high, and traders will need to be on their toes. It’s going to be tough to effectively manage the wide range factors coming into play in the market this week. As always, we urge everyone to exercise restraint and to remember that wealth accumulation is a long-game, and short-term noise should be, as much as possible, ignored.

With the two-horse ANC presidential race beginning to lean in favour of Cyril Ramaphosa, the market is starting to price in his victory and the Rand is firming up. This was compounded with the news that South Africa managed to dodge a bullet when Moody’s decided to postpone our credit rating downgrade until the political fog clouding the presidential race had lifted. All this buoyed the Rand in last week’s trading.

Against all odds, the Rand exhibited significant strength on Monday. The South African currency opened the week at R14.105 to the US Dollar, R16.821 to the Euro and R18.78 to the British Pound. By the close of business, the Rand strengthened to R13.732 to the US Dollar, R16.374 to the Euro and R18.329 to the British Pound.

As usual, it’s a volatile time for the South African Rand. Last week there were movements of more than 50 cents against all major pairs. Despite early-week depreciation, the ZAR made a significant recovery heading towards the weekend, with the USD pulling all the way down below the 14.00 psychological mark. It remains to be seen how the local currency will fare in the run up to the big credit ratings decision on Friday.

This past week we saw the ZAR continue to depreciate against all major currencies, despite a small recovery yesterday.

The Rand ended last week more than two percent down as investors who had bought cheap ZAR-based assets earlier in the week sold out. Firm US data also piled pressure on the local currency. This week should see the market stabilise as it has had time to adjust to Minster Malusi Gigaba’s negative mini-budget presentation.

It’s been a rough ride for the Rand this last week. The Budget Speech set off a period of Rand weakness that has yet to abate. While Rand fundamentals are looking quite dire, and our political situation looking murky as ever, the local currency has managed, perhaps only just, to hang on.

As a week of unexplained cabinet reshuffles and intense political uncertainty came to an end, the Rand managed to cling on for its dear life against a surging US Dollar.

The Rand experienced significant gains toward the back end of last week. The South African currency closed the week at 17.624 and 13.267 against the Pound and US Dollar respectively. This translated to a business week gain of 2.63% against the Sterling and 3.51% against the Greenback. However, following a surprise cabinet reshuffle, the Rand lost some of these gains at the start of this week.

Over the past week we have seen the ZAR weaken quite a bit. The reasons for this move has been attributed to numerous factors, such as the improved outlook on the USD and local political scandals rocking the market. In the UK and the US, there have been statements regarding raising of interest rates, which definitely contributed to the ZAR’s slide.

The Rand weakened on Friday as the South African government recorded a R13 billion budget deficit in August, following a R92 billion shortfall in July, which stoked fears that the country may not avoid future credit downgrades.

The South African Rand opened last week marginally lower compared to last week, as investors worried over global risk events such as tensions between North Korea and the US, as well as the German election outcome.

Recession-busting GDP data released on Tuesday, combined with rising global demand for safe-haven assets like gold, helped the Rand rally to a two-and-a-half month best against the US Dollar.

The Rand opened slightly weaker against the Dollar last week at R13.0602. The Rand has since strengthened in early trade on Tuesday, with demand spurred by higher gold prices ahead of the second quarter economic growth figures, and is currently trading at 12.9502.

For now, any ZAR weakness needs to be seen against the backdrop of a defensive USD. The post Trump rally has now been undone as the USD is trading at levels last seen a year and a half ago. The Greenback is staying above the 13.00 USD-ZAR mark.

The Rand closed strongly last week Friday at 16.899 and 13.15 against the Pound and US Dollar respectively.

Last week Monday it was announced that an eighth attempt to oust Zuma was scheduled to take place, only this time the vote of no confidence would be a secret ballot, thus protecting those ANC members who have switched to the anti-Zuma camp. The Rand reacted virtually instantly to the announcement, seeing the ZAR strengthen […]

The South African Rand has weakened by 4% over the past couple weeks as renewed credit ratings concerns started to surface. On Monday, Moody’s released a report that cited ongoing structural growth concerns and worries over the independence of the South African Reserve Bank.

It’s been an interesting week. Last week began with Chinese data surprising on the upside, causing the commodity currencies (ZAR, AUD) to strengthen. That momentum held with UK CPI data disappointing, as it came in below expectations. On the local front, the SA CPI dropped slightly, putting it firmly in the target range.

Last week the Rand weakened on news that the controversial mining charter would be implemented, and opened at R13.5667 before ending the week on a stronger note at R13.0332. This regaining of strength was largely on the back of settling local politics and a weaker USD.

Last week saw the Rand experience yet a further decline due to the political turmoil in South Africa. The scuffle to gain control of state-owned assets has now spilled over to the private sector. Zuma announced that land expropriation without compensation should be allowed where it is “unavoidable and necessary”.

The last seven days have seen a lot of volatility in international markets. At the same time, there have been numerous recriminations and scandals coming to light thanks to the Gupta leaks. Together with some uninspiring economic data, the Rand has remained remarkably resilient under pressure. Let’s take a more in-depth look at why this is happening.

As expected, the US Fed raised interest rates by 25 basis points last week. The move dampened demand for high-yielding emerging market assets.

Last Friday evening Moody’s confirmed market expectation when it downgraded South Africa’s long-term and senior unsecured ratings to Baa3 from Baa2. This now sits only one notch above junk status. The Rand softened in the hours after the announcement but gained momentum on Sunday evening, trading at lows of 16.17 to the Pound.

The Rand found itself in a dominating position in the final phases of May, owing mainly to the recent drop in inflation. Another possible explanation to the rally against the major currencies was last week’s unchanged ratings from Fitch and S&P, as well as the greenback sell off after Friday’s disappointing US jobs data. Moreover, today’s UK election is likely to play havoc with the Rand’s value.

Last week the Rand was down and hit R13.45 against the Dollar as political turmoil in the US and abroad caused investors to take a risk averse approach. This led to Rand weakness as emerging market currencies were sold off.

Over the last two weeks we have seen the ZAR slowly lose ground against the major currencies. This comes after some surprising resilience in the currency after the downgrades in preceding weeks. Durban hosted the World Economic Forum summit on Africa last week, where we saw the new finance minister, Malusi Gigaba, try and reassure investors that the treasury remains committed to fiscal consolidation.

The South African Rand ended last week on a back foot after the first-round French election results favoured nominee Emmanuel Macron and his party. Macron emerged as a favourite after securing 24.01% of the vote versus Marine Le Pen’s 21.30%.

The Rand’s recent slump seems to have subsided somewhat, with the local currency reverting to pre-cabinet reshuffle levels. Some analysts are now predicting that the ZAR is heading back to fairer valuations. The Rand opened last week 13.22 per Dollar, its firmest since 31 March.

The Rand has made a significant recovery in the last week as political turmoil cools down following the cabinet re-shuffle. We have seen the GBP-ZAR climb back down to well below the 17.00 psychological mark and the USD-ZAR fall below 13.00 again.

The Rand began the week on the backfoot after the fallout from March’s cabinet reshuffle became more intense. The generally negative sentiment surrounding the Rand lead to the ratings downgrade by S&P and later Fitch.

The Rand opened last week on the back foot following the decision of President Jacob Zuma to recall then Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan from an international roadtrip. The Rand weakened by over 1.5% against all majors amidst speculation that Cabinet reshuffle was on the cards. Once the reshuffle happened the Rand took a dive.

Yesterday morning ZAR traders were caught on the back foot when news broke that Finance minister Pravin Gordhan was summoned back from an investor roadshow in the UK. The office of the president confirmed that Zuma had ordered Mr. Gordhan to return to South Africa sending the Rand into a 5% slide.

The Rand has remained one of the strongest rising currencies on the market, with an increase of 6.15% against the US Dollar and 5.14% against the Euro since the beginning of this year. Despite market expectations, we are seeing no signs of the trend slowing down.

This past week we saw the ZAR continue to gain against all major currencies. Contrary to many people’s expectations, the 2017 Budget Speech added further momentum to the Rand rally, even though it didn’t provide much good news for South Africans.

The Rand is one of the best performing currencies of 2017. It continued its trend of growth last week, on the back of decreases in the unemployment rate for the fourth quarter of 2016 as well as the year-on-year inflation rate in January.

Last week ended off with a rather chaotic State of the Nation Address by President Jacob Zuma. The evening was quite a fiasco, with major opposition parties, the EFF and DA, being removed from the chamber and walking out of the event.

The Rand experienced a good week after favourable trade data. Stats SA revealed that there was a R12 billion trade surplus for the month of December, beating the R6 billion figure that analysts had forecast. This came as a relief after November’s disappointing R-1.7 billion deficit.

At the start of last week, the general mood in the markets appeared to be positive.

After a turbulent 2016, amidst local political stressors and threatened ratings downgrades, the Rand has seen relatively large gains against the Pound and the US Dollar since the start of 2017.

The Rand has made some solid gains this week, largely off a weakening Pound and a stalling Dollar. It remains to be seen what will happen in international markets ahead of Trump’s inauguration this week.

It’s been a relatively quiet start to 2017 in currency markets. Despite this, the Rand has enjoyed a good run against both the Dollar and the Pound, with the latter having a hard time of it of late.

The South African Rand has had a stellar 2016. After gaining ground against most major currencies, it looks set to end the year in a better position than when it started.

We walk into the new week with South Africa having sidestepped a ratings downgrade to junk last week. As a result, the Rand has strengthen just over 2% to the US Dollar.

The week started off with some bullish comments from Deputy President Ramaphosa, who spoke about SA avoiding junk status, in an attempt to spin South Africa’s developments positively.

Last week saw a poor performance from the Rand against both the USD and GBP. In other pairings, the ZAR was often on the weaker side of the exchange rate.

It’s been a tough week for the Rand. Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections has emerging market currencies reeling.

Last week was a good week for the Rand. The withdrawal of charges by the NPA against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan saw the Rand strengthen against all major currencies.

The past week has seen the ZAR recover its losses after news of Pravin Gordhan’s summons for fraud caused unrest in the market place two weeks ago. The Rand reached a low of 16.95 against the Pound and a low of 13.82 to the USD during the course of the week.

Last week’s big news revolved around the fraud charges brought against Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan. The Rand has been extremely volatile as Gordhan and his opponents traded blows throughout the week and into the weekend.

Last week ended off with a bombshell for the GBP, with the currency losing 6.1% against the USD in just two minutes. With the Pound at its lowest level in 31 years, many South Africans have been buying as much of the English currency as they can.

The South African Rand opened last week on a solid footing with the SARB hinting that it might not hike interest rates further this year.

The Rand appreciated against all the major currencies last week, making the most gains of all emerging currencies. This was largely as a result of traders awaiting the US Fed’s rate announcement.

The Rand began last week on a weak note, opening at 19.16 to Pound and 14.52 to the US Dollar last Monday. This weakness was short lived and the Rand strengthened dramatically.

It was a week of ups and downs for the South African Rand. The release of good economic data offset some of the losses incurred over the last two weeks.

The South African Rand took a beating last week as political infighting and wild statements from cabinet ministers and politicians turned investors sour on the economy’s prospects.

Last week was characterised by the ZAR weakening against the Pound. The Rand hit a high of 17.82, from a low of 17.07. The decrease in value of the Pound, the British Tourism industry saw an increase of visitors to the UK. This gave the Pound strength once again.

The overall mood in the markets at the start of the week appeared to be positive as the influx of money into developing-market assets served to pull the Rand even higher. Strong jobs data in the US further lowered hopes for any interest rate hikes in the world’s biggest economies, fuelling a rush in demand for emerging market currencies.

The 14.00 USD-ZAR mark has finally been broken. The Rand reached an eight-month high on Friday on the back of some weak US GDP numbers and the fourth consecutive monthly trade surplus in the Republic.

The Rand reached its strongest level against the Pound in 12 months on Friday afternoon, closing at 18.737. The Rand also exhibited signs of strength against the US Dollar, ending the week at 14.293 after beginning the week at 14.337.

Last week started off with major USD power after exceptional labour data reports from the country. Overall, the ZAR has been on a strengthening streak, with the market as a whole progressing to a more “risk on” approach.

After the recent Brexit vote the ZAR has managed to regain some strength, finally seeing a positive comeback for the ZAR – GBP after an extended low.

The South African Rand neared one-year highs against Pound on the back of SABMiller deal approval and Brexit uncertainty.

The Rand started off strong last week as markets prepared for the UK to vote to remain in Thursday’s referendum on EU membership.

The Rand declined by approximately 1.5%, reaching its lowest level in more than a week. This drop occurred on Tuesday, after the Reserve bank announced that the current account deficit has widened from 4.6% in the last quarter of 2015 to 5% in the first quarter of 2016.

The Rand began last week on weak note, opening on Monday morning at 21.75 to the Pound. This weakness was short lived as the Rand strengthened, reaching a weekly high of 21.35 on Wednesday.

Ratings agency S&P has kept South Africa’s long-term credit rating at “BBB-” with a negative outlook. As a result, we have seen some significant improvement in the rates, with the USD/ZAR trading at around 15.10 this morning, compared to Thursday’s close of 15.66.

The South African Rand ended a turbulent week on a positive note, settling around USD/ZAR 15.58, after coming close to breaching the R16 barrier on Thursday.

There was a general progression of weakness in the ZAR against all the major currencies last week. The Rand’s losses occurred despite negative-to-mixed data from the US and the UK.

Following a public holiday on Monday, the Rand firmed slightly against the Dollar early last week Tuesday. This was short-lived and by the end of the day the Rand dropped more than 1% against the stronger currency. The chief drivers of this decline were global risk aversion and increased import demand in the market.

The USD continued to weaken as the Fed dampened expectations of a rate increase. This weakening has seen an appreciation of emerging market currencies, including the ZAR.

The Rand began last week on a strong note, strengthening from 20.7937 against the Pound on Monday morning to a weekly low of 20.3648 on Wednesday evening. These gains were short lived as the Pound regained earlier losses to the Rand as the currency pair closed out the week at 20.7478.

The Rand has managed maintain most of the gains it made against the major currencies in the first week of April. However, consistent negative sentiment has been keeping the local currency from breaking below the 14.50 level.

Last week the Rand started off well, only to weaken midweek before making a comeback by the close of Friday trading. These moves were largely as a result of fluctuations in risk sentiment and emerging markets.

In a week of both political and legal landmarks, the highest court in South Africa ruled that President Jacob Zuma had failed “to uphold, defend and respect the constitution as the supreme law of the land.” Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng ordered Mr. Zuma to repay a sum that will be determined by Treasury in the coming weeks.

Last week started off rather quiet in the South African market with Human Rights Day taking a lot of liquidity out of the local market.

The Rand has been extremely volatile in the past few weeks; last week was no exception. The local currency went as high as 15.47 to the USD and as low as 15.06.

The Rand showed a lot of volatility last week. After opening at 21.75 to the Pound on Monday morning, it quickly soared to a day high of 22.44. By the end of the week, the local currency had made a strong recovery and closed at 21.86 to the Pound.

After opening on Monday morning at 21.73 to the Pound, the Rand recovered to 21.20 by Wednesday on the back of the GBP’s steepest decline in more than six years.

The ZAR continued to rally last week and over the last twenty days the currency has strengthened from around 23.00 to the Pound to just over 22.00.

The Rand had a somewhat surprising reaction in the days leading up to last week’s State of the Nation Address.

Last week was a somewhat positive, albeit volatile, week for the Rand. Despite an initial weakening against the major currencies, the Rand had strengthened by Friday.

After an interest rake hike, and amidst a rally in global markets last week, one of the most volatile months on record for the Rand seems to have ended positively.

The Rand remained see-sawed last week as the attention of the world was focused on the World Economic Forum (WEF) discussions at Davos.