Rand unchanged in afternoon trade

The rand was barely changed in afternoon trade on Friday from its midday levels.

A local trader said the local currency had recovered 'quite well' after a morning scare on news of Wall Street's drop on Thursday.
At 3.50pm the rand was bid at R7.69 to the dollar, R9.76 to the euro and R11.32 to the pound. The euro was bid at $1.2694 from $1.2626 previously.

"The rand has recovered quite well following Thursday's plunge of the Dow. I think the market overreacted to the episode out of the US. In the short term, the rand will likely be range-bound at R7.65-R7.85, depending on the stability of the eurozone countries, particularly Greece," a local dealer said.

Dow Jones Newswires reported that the euro rebounded from 14-month lows against the dollar Friday on a ray of optimism peering through the clouds of the Greek debt crisis, but the dollar took away some of the common currency's gains after a much better-than-expected US jobs report.

In its closely watched employment report, the Labour Department said nonfarm payrolls rose by a higher-than-expected 290 000 last month, the largest gain since March 2006.

That followed an upwardly revised 230 000 increase in March.