Waiting for the bus…

(21.7.04) After following the euro weaker, the rand was off its worst levels in late afternoon trade yesterday on the back of exporter dollar sales.

RMB AM and Business Dayreports that currency traders expected the rand to remain range bound for the rest of the day, with the market eyeing US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's testimony to the US senate's banking committee in the evening.

In late afternoon, the rand was quoted at R5,9475 to the dollar from R5,9248 on Monday. It was quoted at R7,3372 to the euro from a previous R7,3610 and at R11,0170 against sterling from Monday's R11,0700.

The rand weakened to almost R5,98 on the euro's move from $1,2410 to $1,2360, but local exporter interest was seen in selling dollars from R5,97 to R6 a currency trader said.

He also said that for now the rand was likely to be range bound between R5,90 and R6, and that it would have to break below R5,88 and above R6,03 to gain new direction.

The dollar gained ground against its key rivals yesterday, lifted by upbeat testimony on the economy and monetary policy from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

The testimony was broadly in line with market expectations, but Greenspan's bullish outlook for the economy and emphasis that the Fed was ready to raise interest rates if inflation accelerated boosted the dollar.