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October 28, 2008 Edition 2
JOHANNESBURG: The rand recovered against the greenback yesterday as exporters offloaded dollars in the market, but stocks were knocked by further global recession fears and weaker metal prices hit miners.
Johannesburg's Top-40 index of blue chips slid 0.32% to 16 670.05 points, its fourth day of losses in a row. It touched its lowest level since December 2005 in the session. The broader All-Share index slumped 0.52% to 18 363.70 points.
The rand, however, fared better, trading 1.79% firmer against the dollar at 11.00 by 1541 GMT, compared with Friday's close at 11.20. The rand gained as much as 2.1% versus the greenback earlier in yesterday's session.
""The rand is looking remarkably well. It's recovered quite nicely. There seems to be a bit of liquidity coming back to the system; it seems there's a few export orders out there,"" David Gracey, head of trading at Nedbank Capital, said.
""At best we can just hope things settle down into more range-bound activity, but for that to happen we need some equity market stability. Only time will tell.""
Volatility reigned on global equity markets, which swung from positive and back to negative on investor fears that further possible government action to stem the worst financial crisis in 80 years will not be enough to fend off a recession.
Local stocks mirrored the uncertainty. ""It's still very volatile, bouncing around all over the place and we're not sure whether this is the bottom or not,"" Garth Mackenzie of BoE Private Clients said.
""We'll have to see how the US markets go tonight: whether we have some light at the end of the tunnel or whether it's an oncoming train."" - Reuters
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