{"id":41223,"date":"2026-07-31T11:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T09:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=41223"},"modified":"2026-07-31T11:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T09:49:09","slug":"rand-holds-steady-before-trade-balance-data","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-holds-steady-before-trade-balance-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand holds steady before trade balance data"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand was steady in early trade on Friday, holding near its previous \u200bclose as investors awaited domestic trade balance \u200cdata for clues to the health of the external sector.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Rand was trading at 16.4975 against the \u200bDollar, a whisker away from its previous \u200bclose.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s Revenue Service is set to release \u2060June trade balance figures later in the day.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Today&#8217;s \u200brelease will show whether May&#8217;s $109 million \u200bdeficit was temporary or the beginning of a weaker external position,&#8221; ETM Analytics said in a research note.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s oil \u200bimport bill and mineral exports would heavily influence \u200bthe data, it added.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Rand gained about 1% on Thursday, returning \u200cto \u2060its range before the SA Reserve Bank surprised investors and economists by keeping unchanged its main lending rate last week, a move that weighed on the \u200bcurrency.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>ETM Analytics \u200bsaid the \u2060rebound was aided by other central banks also holding rates, a retreat in \u200boil prices below $90 a barrel and the \u200breturn \u2060of a measure of calm to the Middle East.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 index was up \u20600.6%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government bond strengthened \u200bin early deals, as the yield fell 7 basis points to \u200b8.545%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14374,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-41223","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand was steady in early trade on Friday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41224,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41223\/revisions\/41224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}