{"id":7952,"date":"2012-02-14T14:05:14","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T12:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/s-africas-rand-and-bonds-on-the-back-foot\/"},"modified":"2012-02-14T14:05:14","modified_gmt":"2012-02-14T12:05:14","slug":"s-africas-rand-and-bonds-on-the-back-foot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/s-africas-rand-and-bonds-on-the-back-foot\/","title":{"rendered":"S.Africa’s rand and bonds on the back foot"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

JOHANNESBURG<\/span> Feb 14 (Reuters) – The South African
\nrand weakened against the dollar on Tuesday as ratings
\ndowngrades in Europe weighed further on investor risk sentiment
\nand pushed local factors into the background.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Government bonds fell in tandem, pulling yields on the
\nbenchmarket three-year and 14-year bonds 7.5
\nbasis points higher to 6.65 percent and 8.32 percent
\nrespectively.<\/p>\n

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

At 0655 GMT, the rand was 0.37 percent softer at 7.707
\nagainst the dollar, the sixth weakest performer in a basket of
\n20 emerging market currencies tracked by Reuters. It closed on
\nMonday at 7.6785.<\/p>\n

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

“It’s all because of Moody’s and the sovereign ratings last
\nnight although they were not a major surprise, to be honest. We
\nall know Europe’s a massive mess and the ratings agencies have
\nlost a lot of credibility,” Standard Bank dealer Warrick Butler
\nsaid.<\/p>\n

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

Moody’s downgraded several European countries, including
\nItaly, and said it may cut its triple-A ratings on France,
\nBritain and Austria but market watchers said the news was hardly
\nsurprising given the debt crisis playing out in the region.<\/p>\n

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

“I don’t really expect too many fireworks today. There’s a
\ngood resistance level at 7.74 and we’re looking to play the
\nrange 7.65-75. The rand really seems to be dominated by external
\nfactors at the moment,” Butler said.<\/p>\n

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

Local factors have had little impact on financial markets in
\nrecent months, although a cryptic central bank statement last
\nFriday hit the currency by triggering speculation of a major
\nmonetary policy shift or the departure of a senior official.<\/p>\n

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

The statement said there would be an announcement of
\n“national importance” over the weekend, although it turned out
\nto be merely the introduction of new bank notes honouring former
\nPresident Nelson Mandela.<\/p>\n

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

Governor Gill Marcus apologised for the confusion caused.\t<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa; Editing by Ed Cropley)<\/p>\n

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

\n

\t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JOHANNESBURG Feb 14 (Reuters) – The South African rand weakened against the dollar on Tuesday as ratings downgrades in Europe weighed further on investor risk sentiment and pushed local factors into the background. Government bonds fell in tandem, pulling yields on the benchmarket three-year and 14-year bonds 7.5 basis points higher to 6.65 percent and […]<\/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-7952","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\/7952","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=7952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}