Rand slightly softer against dollar ahead of Greek vote

The rand was slightly softer against the dollar in late trade on Friday amid cautious trade ahead of the Greek referendum on Sunday.

Greeks will vote in a referendum on the country’s international bail-out‚ which could determine whether the country remains in the eurozone or returns to the drachma.

US markets are closed due to a public holiday‚ contributing to a weaker rand bias.

Stockbrokerage Imara SP Reid said short-term technicals on the rand were still exhibiting some evidence of "gradual weakness" with the local unit edging out towards a minor technical area at just beyond R12.30.

At 3.21pm‚ the rand was at R12.2765 against the greenback from a close of R12.2548 on Thursday.

The rand was at R13.6275 against the euro from a previous close of R13.5824 and at R19.1694 to the British pound from R19.1269 previously. The euro was at $1.1100 from its previous close of $1.1085.

According to the chief executive of Europe’s largest stock exchange‚ a Greek exit from the eurozone would pose a series of challenges for the financial services industry‚ as reported by Dow Jones Newswires.

"This could be very‚ very chaotic‚" said the CE of BATS Chi-X Europe‚ Mark Hemsley. "Financial contracts‚ such as swaps‚ would have to be redesignated in drachma‚" Mr Hemsley said.

While adding the new currency to trading platforms could be "fairly straightforward" from a technical point of view‚ adapting the post-trade infrastructure in a very short period of time would become a complex task for the industry. To organise this properly required at least a couple of years. If this were done in three or six months‚ it would be a "complete nightmare"‚ he said.

- BDLive