South Africa's rand ends the week flat as local economy, vaccine worries weigh

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand trod water on Friday, following recent gains, while President Cyril Ramaphosa's state of the nation address (SONA) on Thursday failed to detail any new reforms.

At 1600 GMT, the rand was 0.44% stronger at 14.5550 per dollar, little moved from its overnight close of 14.6200.

The rand strengthened nearly 2% in the past four sessions, mostly taking its cues from offshore events such as the dollar's recent slide.

There has been a divergence of views among traders this year over just how US President Joe Biden's planned $1.9 trillion fiscal stimulus package will affect the dollar.

So far, expectations of continued monetary policy accommodation have left the greenback reeling and riskier currencies in favour.

"While the broader bias remains in favour of risk assets, there appears to be a stalemate in the market as it assesses whether or not to book some profits after the recent risk rally," said economists at ETM Analytics.

In his address on Thursday evening, President Ramaphosa said the country, hit hard by a second wave of COVID-19, would undertake a massive vaccination program.

Ramaphosa said South Africa had secured nine million doses of the J&J vaccine, while another 20 million doses of the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech were also on their way.

"South Africa aims to vaccinate two-thirds of its population by the end of the year, but progress has been slow so far," said Commerzbank's Elisabeth Andreae in a note.

"In our view, the fragile economy and the high level of government debt, which continues to rise, limit the further ZAR appreciation potential."

Bonds weakened with the yield on the benchmark 2030 issue rising 4.5 basis points to 6.705%.

The stock market firmed up once again on Friday, after its six-day winning streak was halted on Thursday, as banks and financials recovered on President Ramaphosa's promise on large scale infrastructure and energy spending in 2021.

The benchmark FTSE/JSE all-share index climbed 0.38% to end the day's trading at 66,132 points, just shy of its all-time record seen on Wednesday.

The bluechip FTSE/JSE top-40 companies' index ended up 0.42% to 60,674 points.