Rand up against the dollar

The South African rand was firm in the morning session on Monday having reached key technical levels against a steady euro.

At 09.02am the rand was bid at R7.36 to the dollar from R7.42 at its previous close. It was bid at R10.09 to the euro and R11.17 to the pound.

The euro was bid at $1.3681 from $1.3636 previously.

A local trader said: "The rand looks mighty at the moment, we reached a key level of 10.09 against the euro, which bounced on the weekend." The trader noted a target of 7.34 against the dollar."

In their morning commentary, RMB analysts noted that Greek Prime Minister Papandreou is likely to have emerged from his weekend discussions with German and French officials with mixed feelings.

Even though he failed to secure definite financial assistance, Papandreou attained a firm pledge of support from his French and German counterparts, who endorsed the embattled country's latest round of austerity measures which has provoked public dissent within the debt-ridden nation.

Dow Jones Newswires meanwhile reported that the dollar rose to a two-week-high against the yen Monday in Asia, as higher regional shares bolstered investors' appetite for riskier, higher-yielding assets, and they dumped the safe-haven Japanese unit for the US currency.