The rand was on a shaky ground on Wednesday morning, taking direction from the generally jittery global markets. As one of the most-liquid currencies, the rand is most sensitive to global risk sentiment. As recently as Tuesday, the rand touched R12.5238/$, before losing ground to R12.7150/$. The weaker rand coincided with a sharp drop on Wall Street on Tuesday night, which affected Asian markets on Wednesday. Analysts have attributed the risk-off global sentiment to the concern that US president Donald Trump’s pro-growth initiatives may take longer than initially expected. Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) analysts said the rand and other emerging-market currencies were vulnerable to further weakness. A weaker rand stokes inflation, which may lead the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates at the time when the local economy is pumping below its potential. At 9.03am, the rand was at R12.7048 against the dollar from R12.6716. The rand was at R13.7358 against the euro from R...
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