Sterling Rand was locked in a pronounced downtrend until the start of February. Last Thursday saw the pair recover to trade to its highest level since the 26th January following strong British Retail Sales numbers and a wobble in share markets due to fears over Iran’s nuclear programme and the lack of positive noises coming out of Greece. However, this week’s session has seen the GBP ZAR exchange rate open up lower than Friday’s market close – a sure technical signal of negativity in a market. With global stock indices making gains during the first session of this week, as institutional investors factor in good news from Greece which is expected within the next twenty four hours, there is the potential for this to be another poor week for the Pound against the Rand. Consecutive closes below 11.8875, which was the 5-month low of February 3rd, would be required to provide confirmation that the downtrend for GBP ZAR has been re-established.
You can expect some fluctuations tomorrow when the Minister of Finance Pravin Gordham announces the budget in South Africa with petrol prices looking to increase we expect by 20c a lite and levies on fuel to increase.
