{"id":268463,"date":"2018-08-30T14:47:16","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T12:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=268463"},"modified":"2018-08-30T14:47:16","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T12:47:16","slug":"the-rand-is-at-its-most-volatile-in-two-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/268463\/the-rand-is-at-its-most-volatile-in-two-years\/","title":{"rendered":"The rand is at its most volatile in two years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The rand is behaving more erratically this month than it did during the height of the power struggle between Jacob Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa in December.<\/p>\n

The notoriously volatile currency has traded between R13.18 and R15.55 per dollar during August amid thin liquidity with many northern-hemisphere market participants on summer vacation.<\/p>\n

This week alone, it dipped below R14 per dollar on Tuesday after a report on the land reform process briefly cheered traders. But by Thursday, it had weakened above R14.50 as concerns over Turkey and Argentina weighed on emerging-market currencies.<\/p>\n

The rand\u2019s one-month historical volatility is now at its highest level since December 2016 and the currency is headed for its worst August performance against the dollar on record, on track for a 9 percent drop. This would also be the worst monthly performance in more than two years.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the rand\u2019s implied volatility, based on options to buy and sell the currency, has moderated from a seven-year high, suggesting traders expect price swings to narrow in coming weeks. But traders may be too sanguine: the risks that helped spark the sell-off in the currency this month, including the land issue, show no signs of abating, a gauge by GeoQuant shows.<\/p>\n

“The rand will remain vulnerable to both fragile local and global sentiment,” Zaakirah Ismail, a fixed-income strategist at Standard Bank Group Ltd, wrote in a client note dated Aug. 27. “Local policy uncertainty will likely persist until the South African national elections next year.”<\/p>\n

The currency traded 1.4% weaker at R14.54 per dollar by 14h00 in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Read: Motorists can expect more petrol price hikes thanks to the rand<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The rand is behaving more erratically this month than it did during the height of the power struggle between Jacob Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa in December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":222769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-268463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268463"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268483,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268463\/revisions\/268483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}