{"id":6252,"date":"2011-12-19T12:31:02","date_gmt":"2011-12-19T10:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/12\/s-africas-rand-under-pressure-govt-bonds-steady\/"},"modified":"2011-12-19T12:31:02","modified_gmt":"2011-12-19T10:31:02","slug":"s-africas-rand-under-pressure-govt-bonds-steady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/s-africas-rand-under-pressure-govt-bonds-steady\/","title":{"rendered":"S.Africa’s rand under pressure, govt bonds steady"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

* Rand vulnerable, liquidity thin<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* Bonds steady, stock futures down<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG<\/span> Dec 19 (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand
\nweakened against the dollar on Monday and will likely remain
\nunder pressure as news of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s
\ndeath sent investors to safe-haven assets such as the U.S.
\ncurrency.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The rand was poised to end the year down more than 20
\npercent against the dollar, battered by risk aversion as the
\neuro zone debt crisis deepened.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Ratings agency Fitch warned on Friday it might downgrade
\nFrance and six other euro zone countries as it believed a
\ncomprehensive solution to the region’s debt crisis was
\n“technically and politically beyond reach”, making investors
\neven more cautious.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The rand was trading at 8.3850 against the dollar,
\nnot far from Friday’s New York close of 8.3750.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Given dollar\/rand’s sensitivity to the euro we wouldn’t
\nrule out wide swings, especially with thinning liquidity. Fresh
\nrisk aversion could see it test this year highs at 8.60 once
\nagain,” market analysts 4CAST said in a note.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The rand hit 2-1\/2 year lows at 8.61 in November and has
\nremained vulnerable, failing to break firmer than than the
\npsychologically key level of 8.00\/dollar despite several
\nattempts.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

With some dealers off for holidays, trading volumes will be
\nthinner, rendering the currency vulnerable to wide moves.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Stocks looked set to open weaker, with the JSE’s Top-40
\nMarch futures contract down more than one percent before the
\nstart of trade at 0700 GMT.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Government bonds were largely steady, with the 2015 bond
\n up one basis point to 6.95 percent and that on the
\n2026 issue unchanged from the previous close at 8.705
\npercent.\t<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Phumza Macanda; editing by David Dolan)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

* Rand vulnerable, liquidity thin * Bonds steady, stock futures down JOHANNESBURG Dec 19 (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand weakened against the dollar on Monday and will likely remain under pressure as news of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s death sent investors to safe-haven assets such as the U.S. currency. The rand was poised to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-6252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}