Rand touches R15 to the dollar as a result of ‘a perfect storm’
South Africa’s financial assets were battered yesterday, following another escalation in the trade war between Beijing and Washington, with the rand testing the R15 mark against the dollar and the JSE closing the trading session deep in the red.
The local currency weakened to a day’s low of R14.96 against the greenback before staging a comeback in late trade and was bid at R14.89 by 5 pm, still weaker than the R14.75 it was bid at the same time on Friday.
The all-share index closed the session more than 2 percent weaker at 54 975 points against Friday’s 56 274 points.
US President Donald Trump slapped China last week with a 10 percent tariff on the remaining $300 billion (R4.42 trillion) of Chinese goods.
Beijing responded swiftly by letting its currency, the Chinese yuan, sink to the weakest level in more than a decade and ordered state-owned companies to halt their purchases of US agricultural products.
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