Rand continues to trade at its stronger level against major currencies

The rand continues to trade at its stronger level against a basket of major currencies and is approaching R15 to the dollar, after having exchanged hands at R19, 35 to the dollar at the beginning of April.

The rand’s current strength can in part be attributed to a weaker dollar, which usually strengthens emerging market currencies.

The rand is seen by some investors as a proxy for emerging-market risk and tends to gain strongly when emerging market sentiment improves.

The rand is trading at R15, 17 to the dollar in afternoon Asian trade and before the start of trading on the JSE.

M a r k e t s @ 1 7 : 0 5 pic.twitter.com/TmPj3UwuMl

— JSE (@JSE_Group) November 24, 2020

The price of Brent crude oil has jumped to its highest level since early March, having gained around 10 percent in the last four trading sessions, and is at 48-dollars-50-cents in Asia on Wednesday morning.

This, as promising developments toward a coronavirus vaccine has brightened the outlook for fuel consumption.

On the supply side, a possible delay in OPEC’s planned production increase in January is adding to the rise in the oil price.

OPEC producers have been withholding supplies to support prices after pandemic lockdowns earlier this year caused demand for oil to evaporate.

However, the price of oil is miles away from it’s all-time high at around 150-dollars a barrel at the beginning of July in 2008.