The Rand continued to weaken today after news that all of 13 shafts of Lonmin were closed following a wildcat strike‚ apparently as a result of tensions between rival unions. “The main driver is obviously the labour unrest although some of the banks have also lowered their GDP growth outlooks. The next resistance level would be up at R9.25‚ but I don’t think we’ll see that in the short term. We’ve basically run our course on the current move and could expect to close around R9.15/$‚” said Tony van Dyk‚ a currency dealer at the Iquad Group. Lonmin (LON) confirmed on Tuesday morning that miners arrived for work but did not go underground. Although spokeswoman Sue Vey said the reason for the workers not going underground was unclear‚ tension between rival unions National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) have been on the rise since last year. At 11:31 the rand was bid at R9.1803/$ from R9.1564 at Monday’s close and R9.1061 at Friday’s close. The local currency was bid at R11.9393/ € from its previous close of R11.8840 and was at R14.0508 against sterling from R14.0026 at its previous close.
