2019 was wrapped up with much gusto, an eventful December seeing most developed market central banks maintaining interest rates (Federal Reserve Press Release can be found here), the Conservatives won the UK election, a phase one deal was agreed to between the US and China, the US House of Representatives voting to impeach President Donald Trump, and Fitch Ratings agency deciding not to downgrade South Africa. Throughout December the rand ranged between 13.96 and 14.86.

The NFB Asset Management Investment Committee decided to take advantage of the rand’s stronger position and to increase offshore exposure through December. Three sets of trades were completed on the 18th, 20th and 27th of December for both the NFB Ci Stable Fund and the NFB Ci Managed Fund. The below chart reflects the NFB Asset Management Investment Committees’ recent currency trades. The last 3 yellow markers on the below graph reflect the decisions made in December 2019.



Source: Refinitiv

Further detail about the December trades can be seen in the below table:
 

Unfortunately, the rally in the rand appears to be short lived, as it began to weaken as global risk events surprised investors, the most pertinent of which was the US strike on Baghdad and the resultant assassination of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, redirecting global investors to safe havens.