The rand was wobbly on Wednesday morning as markets awaited further developments around the future of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy, Mcebisi Jonas. Speculation is rife that the two officials will be removed from their posts, although the timing of their removal and who will replace them remains unclear at this stage. The resulting uncertainty has hit sentiment, pushing the rand down 5% against the dollar over the past two days, marking a sharp U-turn from its the strengthening path it has been on in recent weeks. On Monday the local currency looked like it would push through R12.30/$ but then political developments pushed it to lows of R13.10/$ "Risks are still skewed towards ongoing weakness but this would require further negative news flow. Absent further shock, the market would normally consolidate and start to recover," Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) analyst John Cairns said in a note. The weaker rand pushes up prices, which erodes the purchasing power of disposable i...
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