Rand weaker prior to local data releases, Fed meeting

The rand fell on Thursday as investors await local data releases and the US’s Federal Reserve’s meeting later inside day.

At 0717 GMT, the rand fell 0.43% to 13.97 towards the dollar, having firmed against a weaker dollar on Wednesday after US midterm elections split Congress. It is known as lowering the chance for any major US fiscal policy boost soon.

The rand predicted to exchange the plethora R13.70 to R14.05 towards the dollar, an NKC note said.

“Focus turns into the Fed meeting, with markets expecting rates to remain unchanged. However, investors will peruse the Fed’s statement for clues on future monetary-policy setting,” said Rand Merchant Bank analysts said inside of a note.

South Africa will publish manufacturing data and mining production figures for September on Thursday. A Reuters poll forecasts total mining to improve 0.30%.

Bonds were weaker, with the yield on government’s 10-year paper up 4.5 basis points to 9.115%.

On the bourse, the All Share Index opened flat at 54 708 point.?