South African rand falls as markets course of Trump’s tariff menace

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa’s rand fell on Monday after feedback by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump over the weekend apprehensive merchants within the BRICS bloc of rising economies and raised questions on what his second time period may imply for commerce relations.

At 1506 GMT, the rand traded at 18.22 towards the U.S. greenback, about 1% softer than its earlier shut.

Trump on Saturday demanded that BRICS member nations decide to not creating a brand new foreign money or supporting one other foreign money that will substitute the greenback or face 100% tariffs.

South Africa is a member of the BRICS bloc, together with Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Some market gamers stated Trump’s feedback won’t have a long-lasting impact on the foreign money, however nonetheless raised issues.

“Bearish momentum is unlikely to be sustained given {that a} BRICS foreign money doesn’t exist and would, in any case, pose little danger to the USD’s standing as the worldwide reserve foreign money,” Danny Greeff, co-head of Africa at ETM Analytics, stated.

“However, Trump’s tariff threats present a glimpse of what lies forward within the coming 4 years as he’ll purpose to enhance on current commerce agreements for the U.S.’s profit,” Greeff added.

Additionally on Monday, an area buying managers’ index survey confirmed that South African manufacturing exercise fell in November as unstable demand circumstances weighed on enterprise exercise, whereas knowledge from the nation’s auto affiliation confirmed new car gross sales jumped greater than 8% in the identical month.

Native traders will on Tuesday look to South Africa’s third quarter gross home product numbers for additional clues on the well being of Africa’s most industrialised economic system.

On the Johannesburg Inventory Trade, the blue-chip High-40 index closed about 1.6% up.

South Africa’s benchmark 2030 authorities bond slipped, with the yield up 2.5 foundation factors to eight.94%.