| South Africa’s rand continued to trade in a 7.35/$ to 7.45/$ trading range, with little interest shown by market players. Today is the due date for the MTN/Bharti announcement and the general expectation is that the announcement will be postponed once again. Most other currencies are also trading sideways. Locally we have the release of our trade figures market expectations is at -0.3 billion rand, unless this figure is way out of line it should be a non event.
Manufacturing activity powered ahead in Japan and China in September, providing fresh evidence of a global recovery, but other data from Tokyo showed worrisome signs that the impact of massive government stimulus spending may be starting to fade. Japanese manufacturing grew at its fastest pace in three years, with expanding new orders at home and abroad, while factories in China cranked up production for the sixth straight month, private activity indexes showed. Elsewhere, stronger-than-expected retail sales in Australia added to market expectations that its central bank could start to raise interest rates as early as November as the economy regains momentum, while business confidence in New Zealand climbed to its strongest level in a decade. A purchasing managers’ index on China showed a 4 trillion Yuan ($585 billion) government stimulus programme and ultra-loose growth-supportive policy continued to bolster the domestic economy in September, while global demand for Asian goods slowly recovered |
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| Current levels | |||
| Rand / Usd | 7.3500-7.4000 | ||
| Rand / Euro | 10.8000-10.8500 | ||
| Rand / Sterling | 11.8500-11.9000 | ||
| Jpy / Rand | 12.12 -12.17 | ||
| Jpy / Usd | 89.80 | ||
| Usd / Euro | 1.4619 | ||
| Gbp / Usd | 1.6060 | ||
| Gold | $997.00 | ||
| Brent | $65.80 | ||
| Expected ranges | |||
| Rand / Usd | 7.33000-7.5300 | ||
| Rand / Euro | 10.8000-11.0000 | ||
| Rand / Sterling | 11.8000-12.0000 | ||
| Jpy / Rand | 12.00-12.20 | ||