South African Rand |

Goldman Cheers as Rand Heads for Best-Ever Start to a Year

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The rand’s flying start to 2019 may be just the beginning, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The South African currency is heading for its biggest January gain against the dollar since Bloomberg started compiling the data in 1999. And with expected volatility near an eight-month low, traders are discounting local stumbling blocks in coming months, including a budget speech, ratings review and election. The rand has been buoyed by a more dovish Federal Reserve…

Eye of the Emerging-Market Storm May Have Passed the Rand

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The tide may have turned for South Africa’s battered rand. The currency slumped 14 percent in the second quarter, its worst three-month period in more than six years, amid an emerging-market sell-off sparked by rising U.S. rates and escalating trade tensions. It didn’t help that South Africa’s economy is struggling to emerge from a contraction, leaving the central little room for policy tightening. And the euphoria that followed Cyril Ramaphosa’s election…

Japan’s Retail Army Is Piling Into Rand While Shunning Lira

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The lira’s loss is the rand’s gain. Japan’s retail investors are boosting holdings of South Africa’s currency at the fastest pace since 2009 while cutting foreign-exchange exposure in Turkey. Individual investors from the Asian nation have raised their net rand long position against the yen for five straight months through June, according to data from Tokyo Financial Exchange Inc. They have been reducing their net lira positioning for four months. “Japanese…