JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand weakened against a stronger dollar in early trade on Wednesday, with investors continuing to weigh up how badly a surge in Omicron coronavirus cases would hit the global economy.
At 1017 GMT, the rand traded at 15.8800 against the dollar, 0.13% weaker than its previous close.
With small declines in the pound - a beneficiary of Tuesday's rally - and the euro, the dollar index snapped two days of losses and edged a little higher to 96.551, though it was still well within its recent ranges.
Foreign exchange moves were largely small, however, with trading volumes thinner ahead of the holiday season.
"These are illiquid markets and Omicron continues to be a huge cloud of uncertainty over them," Craig Erlam, senior market analyst for UK and EMEA at OANDA, said in a note.
South Africa's stocks firm as risk appetite improves, rand weakens
Since the outbreak of the Omicron variant in late-November, investors heading into holidays have been trying to avoid risk, with knee-jerk reactions being the order of the day every time there is some development on the virus.
Still enjoying Tuesday's rally as risk appetite improved, the Johannesburg All-Share index rose 0.48% at 1027 GMT, while the Top-40 index rose 0.47%.
In fixed income, the yield on the benchmark 2030 government bond was up 5 basis points to 9.375%.
Comments
Comments are closed.