The rand was weaker against the dollar just before midday on Friday, retracing after being steady in earlier sessions. The currency changed course in intraday trade after reaching its best level of R14.11/$, diverting from a firming trend on Thursday. Analysts say the rand’s rally on Thursday could be partly attributed to adverse political headlines dying down. Rand Merchant Bank analyst John Cairns said that the easing of global risk aversion had allowed the rand to finally unwind the local-politics-induced losses of last week. On Thursday the US House of Representatives finally approved the much anticipated tax reforms, which now needs the approval of the Senate. The dollar softened on the news, which partly boosted the rand. Cairns said the problem remained in the Senate, where progress was slower and faced more opposition. At 11.30am‚ the rand was at R14.2033 to the dollar from R14.1620, at R16.7533 to the euro from R16.6683, and at R18.8199 to the pound from R18.6844. The euro ...
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