Turkish lira roller-coaster ride sends rand to R14.50/$
Local focus remains squarely on Thursday’s interest-rate decision and Moody’s credit-ratings announcement on Friday
The rand was slightly weaker against major global currencies on Wednesday, but had given up the mantle of most volatile emerging-market currency to the Turkish lira. Implied one-week volatility for the lira has risen to 35%, according to Bloomberg data, almost twice that of the rand’s 19%. Implied volatility is a measure of the range a currency is expected to move, and therefore risk. The lira had strengthened 5% against the dollar at one point on Tuesday after Turkey’s central bank raised its overnight lending rate to 380%, and the rand was currently an afterthought for the market, said Standard Bank currency trader Warrick Butler. Movements in the lira tend to spill over to the rand, according to analysts, as both are emerging-market currencies and are often bought or sold in tandem by large investors. At 9.45am the rand had weakened 0.54% to R14.4949/$, 0.34% to R16.3051/€ and 0.28% to R19.0955/£. The euro was 0.19% weaker at $1.1249. Risk events continue to threaten volatility i...
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