JOHANNESBURG (The Southern African Times) – The South African rand paused early on Wednesday after a losing streak linked to a stronger U.S. dollar and contagion from a plummeting Turkish lira.
At 0703 GMT Wednesday the rand traded at 15.8400 against the dollar, unchanged from its previous close.
The dollar (.DXY) also stabilised against a basket of currencies after surging on the nomination of U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for a second term.
With no major domestic economic data releases due on Wednesday, analysts are expecting the rand to track global drivers once more.
“The contagion spillover effect from Turkey and rampant dollar remain the key drivers,” Andre Cilliers, currency strategist at TreasuryONE, said in a research note.
The Turkish lira continued its slide on Wednesday, moving back towards the record low hit during a 15% crash a day earlier after President Tayyip Erdogan defended recent cuts to interest rates.
A sharp drop in one emerging market currency can hurt highly liquid peers such as the rand as investors dump assets of a similar risk profile.
The South African government’s 2030 bond was also little changed early on Wednesday.
