{"id":41588,"date":"2026-08-05T08:58:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T06:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=41588"},"modified":"2026-08-05T09:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T07:11:14","slug":"rand-edges-up-ahead-of-business-activity-pmi-as-risk-appetite-improves","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-edges-up-ahead-of-business-activity-pmi-as-risk-appetite-improves\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand edges up ahead of business activity PMI as risk appetite improves"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The South African (SA) Rand edged up in early trade on Wednesday as a softer \u200bDollar and lower oil prices lent support to \u200cthe risk-sensitive currency, while domestic investors awaited the release of a business conditions Purchasing Managers&#8217; Index (PMI).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The \u200bRand was trading at 16.35 against the Dollar, \u200bup about 0.2% from its previous close.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">United States (US) \u2060President Donald Trump said his administration had &#8220;very good \u200bdiscussions&#8221; with Iran on Tuesday, fuelling expectations of an imminent \u200bend to the five-month conflict.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The US Dollar kept subdued on fresh optimism over the Middle East, while oil prices extended declines \u200bafter steep falls in the two prior trading \u200bsessions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Most Asian emerging-market currencies also strengthened on Wednesday, as hopes of easing \u200cUS and Iran \u2060tension boosted risk appetite.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Prices of SA&#8217;s key mineral exports rose, with gold up nearly 2% and platinum gaining 1%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Domestic investors will look to the July \u200bStandard and Poor&#8217;s Global PMI, for fresh insight into business conditions across the private sector.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">A local manufacturing \u200bPMI on Monday showed SA sentiment deteriorated \u200bfurther \u2060in July, dragged down by weak export demand and concern over renewed hostilities between the US and \u2060Iran.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">SA&#8217;s \u200bbenchmark 2035 government bond was \u200bfirmer in early deals, as the yield fell 7 basis points \u200bto 8.29%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14374,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-41588","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand edged up in early trade on Wednesday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41588","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\/41588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41589,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41588\/revisions\/41589"}],"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=41588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}