The rand was little changed against major currencies on Thursday morning, holding onto gains from a rally last night as the dollar slid against most currencies. The dollar reached a 30-month low against the euro on Wednesday evening, after the US Federal Reserve concluded its two-day monetary policy meeting with a statement that was widely perceived as dovish. Fed officials voted unanimously not to change interest rates, but said a process of unwinding $4.5-trillion dollar balance sheet would begin "relatively soon". Although the market interpretation that the Fed was dovish, the local unit had yet to breach below the technically significant R12.80 level, said Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking analysts. The rand’s performance was solely a function of dollar weakness and could not be attributed to rand strength just yet, TreasuryOne dealer Phillip Pearce said. Risk-on trade following the Fed statement was likely to remain the main focus on Thursday, analysts said. At 9.12am, t...
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