The rand was weaker against major global currencies on Thursday afternoon, having now spent more than a week steadily losing ground against the dollar. Upbeat US corporate-earnings reports, weak eurozone economic data, as well as investor interest in safe-haven assets have helped boost the dollar . On Thursday the world’s dominant reserve currency was trading at a two-year high against a basket of six other major currencies. Global-growth fears in general were subduing activity on Thursday, with market focus on Friday’s release of US GDP data for the fourth quarter. At 2pm, the rand had lost 0.54% to R14.5262/$, 0.29% to R16.1617/€ and 0.33% to R18.6987/£. The euro was 0.25% weaker at $1.1126. The benchmark R186 government bond was bid at 8.62% from 8.56%. The rand has depreciated 3.3%, or about 50c, to the dollar compared with where it was a week ago, with added pressure coming after last week’s announcement that Eskom had received a R5bn bailout from the government. Despite this, ...
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