{"id":8147,"date":"2012-02-20T14:20:02","date_gmt":"2012-02-20T12:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/s-africas-rand-firms-vs-dollar-eyes-on-greece\/"},"modified":"2012-02-20T14:20:02","modified_gmt":"2012-02-20T12:20:02","slug":"s-africas-rand-firms-vs-dollar-eyes-on-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/s-africas-rand-firms-vs-dollar-eyes-on-greece\/","title":{"rendered":"S.Africa’s rand firms vs dollar, eyes on Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

* Rand may gain if Greece gets loan package<\/span><\/p>\n

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

* Bonds slightly firmer, eyes on budget<\/p>\n

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

JOHANNESBURG<\/span> Feb 20 (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand
\nfirmed against the dollar on Monday, and looked set to post
\nfurther gains if Europe’s leaders sign off on another rescue
\npackage for Greece intended to avert an imminent and chaotic
\ndefault.<\/p>\n

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

A decision by China to loosen monetary policy also boosted
\nrisk sentiment, with commodity currencies such as the rand
\nfirming.<\/p>\n

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

The rand was trading at 7.6714 against the dollar,
\nnearly one percent firmer than Friday’s New York close of
\n7.7425.<\/p>\n

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

“We are still very much in ranges and we would have to break
\n7.54 to start generating any proper downside momentum but until
\nthen in we’ll stay in the 7.64-7.74 range,” said Jim Bryson,
\nchief dealer at RMB.<\/p>\n

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

“We’ve come in with dollar\/rand a bit oversold this morning
\nand its unlikely we’ll break 7.64 and we will probably bounce a
\nbit,” he added. Trading might be skittish due to a U.S. market
\nholiday.<\/p>\n

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

On domestic front, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan presents
\nthe 2012 budget on Wednesday, with markets looking to how the
\ngovernment plans to fund a 300 billion rand infrastructure
\nprogramme announced by President Jacob Zuma this month.<\/p>\n

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

Signs of the government taking longer than expected to
\nnarrow the budget deficit are likely to put pressure on the
\ncurrency and bonds, with investors set to price in more issuance
\nat the long end of the curve.<\/p>\n

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

On Monday, government bonds started steady, with the yield
\non the 2015 bond unchanged from the previous close at
\n6.6 percent while the 2026 bond yield ticked up 0.5
\nbasis points to 8.235 percent.<\/p>\n

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

The JSE’s Top-40 March futures contract was up 0.42 percent
\nsuggesting a positive start on the stock market at 0700 GMT.\t<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Phumza Macanda; 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":"

* Rand may gain if Greece gets loan package * Bonds slightly firmer, eyes on budget JOHANNESBURG Feb 20 (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand firmed against the dollar on Monday, and looked set to post further gains if Europe’s leaders sign off on another rescue package for Greece intended to avert an imminent and chaotic […]<\/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-8147","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\/8147","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=8147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}