Rand drops further against the dollar

The rand continued to track a soft euro in midday play on Thursday, ahead of the European Central Bank's monetary council meeting to discuss the current chaos on European financial markets.

At 11.47am the rand was bid at R7.63 to the dollar, R9.74 to the euro and R11.46 to the pound. The euro was bid at $1.2771 from $1.2812 previously.

Dow Jones Newswires reported that the euro staged a rebound Thursday after falling to 14-month lows against the dollar and the yen earlier in the day as fears of contagion continue to drive market sentiment.

Sentiment got a boost from an auction of €3 billion of five-year Spanish bonds, which went better than the market anticipated.
The panel, which is meeting in Lisbon, comes together amid a new wave of jitters in European financial markets, where investors fear the Greek debt crisis could spread to other countries with weak public finances.