The rand was stable on Friday afternoon after a strong run attributed to dollar weakness. The local currency strengthened to its best New Year level of R13.50/$ earlier this week when the market cut back on buying the dollar after US President-elect Donald Trump failed to provide specifics on his promises to stimulate US economic growth. Treasury One director and head of dealing Wichard Cilliers said: "The bias is certainly towards further gains for the local currency as the dollar begins to falter and commodities see resurgence." Nedbank analysts said: "The dollar bulls seemed less than pleased with the president-elect for not giving any clarity on fiscal stimulus leading the dollar to significant selling interest, and unwinding of long positions that seemed to take the market by storm." At 3.31pm, the rand was R13.5166 to the dollar from Thursday’s R13.5107, R14.3785 to the euro from R14.3400 and R16.4339 to the pound from R16.4370. The euro was $1‚0639 from $1‚0613.
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