Waiting for green...

The rand was weaker against major currencies in late afternoon trade yesterday as players squared positions ahead of congressional testimony by US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan.

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RMB AM and Business Day report that a softer euro and lower gold price added to the negative picture.

At 4pm, the rand was quoted at R6,7138 to the dollar from R6,6276 on Tuesday. It was quoted at R8,0585 to the euro from a previous R8,0222 and at R11,8980 against sterling from Tuesday's R11,7540.

Generally the rand's weakness this afternoon has been attributed to a bit of position squaring into Greenspan's remarks this afternoon.

There is also nervousness in the euro side and there has been a sell-off in gold, both of which are adding to a slightly negative bias for the rand, a market analysts said.

He also said that while the rand had broken out of its expected range, its losses should still be capped at R6,75, where a trend line had been in place since the beginning of the year.

The dollar sagged against major currencies yesterday after testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan offered a cautiously upbeat view on the outlook of the US economy.