Rand regains some lost ground

The rand recouped some of its losses against major currencies on Wednesday morning ahead of US Federal chairwoman Janet Yellen’s testimony to Congress.

At 8.20am‚ the rand was at R16.0238 against the dollar from a previous close of R16.0658.

Against the euro‚ the rand was at R18.0940 from R18.1448 and was at R23.1999 against the pound from R23.2437 previously.

The euro was at $1.1293 from $1.1292 previously.

Dow Jones Newswires reported that when Ms Yellen spoke publicly for the first time in eight weeks‚ she would provide an assessment of the mixed economic landscape that had made Fed officials more cautious about raising interest rates again in March.

"Ms Yellen‚ in remarks to the house financial services committee‚ (is) likely (to) seek to keep the Fed’s options open while officials await additional data on economy’s health and watch how events play out in financial markets‚" the newswires reported.

If her testimony is construed as hawkish‚ the rand is likely to weaken against the dollar.

- TMG Digital/BDlive