Rand softer due to Chinese and Greek market jitters

The rand was softer against the dollar late on Wednesday as emerging market commodity currencies were hard hit after Chinese markets plummeted on Wednesday.

Confidence in Chinese equity markets plunged on fears over slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy. China is one of the largest importers of South African commodities‚ such as iron ore.

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Instability caused by the Greek debt crisis also contributed to the rand’s weaker bias.

At 3.36pm‚ the rand was at R12.5189 against the greenback from a close of R12.4537 on Tuesday.

The rand was at R13.8399 against the euro from a previous close of R13.7101 and at R19.2358 to the British pound from R19.2571 previously.

The euro was at $1.1056 from its previous close of $1.1009.

China’s markets fell sharply on Wednesday as it continued a three-week sell-off that has cast doubts on the Chinese central bank’s ability to shore up confidence.

Despite freezing more than a thousand stocks from trading‚ the Shanghai Composite index dropped 5.9%‚ having been down as much as 8.2% earlier in the day‚ the Shenzhen Composite was down 2.5%‚ while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed down 5.8%‚ wiping out its gains for the year‚ Dow Jones Newswires reported.

Amid the sell-off‚ analysts on Wednesday said Greece was a “side show” and questioned whether the US Federal Reserve would push raising interest rates further down the road‚ the newswire said.

- BDlive