Rand trades firmer against dollar in thin‚ volatile trade

The rand was firmer against dollar on Tuesday morning in volatile trade.

The currency weakened to the R12.52 to the dollar level in earlier trade‚ retraced and tested the R12.42 to the dollar level. With most traders still away on holiday‚ liquidity levels are thin.

At 9.22am the rand was at R12.4473 to the dollar from R12.5040‚ at R14.7845 to the euro from R14.8291 and at R16.6577 to the pound from R16.7216.

The euro was at $1.1879 from $1.1858.

The after-effects of ANC conference last week where President Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as the party’s leader were still prevalent in the rand’s movements.

The currency lost some of its gains towards the end of the conference in response to the ANC’s decision to seek changes to the Constitution to allow land expropriation without compensation.

The rand however gained over 1% in thin trade over the Christmas holidays‚ on reports that the newly elected ANC national executive committee wanted President Jacob Zuma to resign.

Most analysts said while the market welcomed a Ramaphosa as the party’s new president‚ it was the policy implementation thereafter that would determine the direction of the rand. - BusinessLIVE