Rand Gains Despite Further Escalation In Power Outages

Further escalation in South Africa's rolling blackouts has failed to prevent USD/ZAR from losing altitude. The rate trades at ZAR16.9601, down ~540 pips on the day, struggling to break out of yesterday's range.

• Eskom said that it is implementing Stage 6 load-shedding from 16:00 until further notice, "due to severe capacity constraints" at several coal-powered plants. The electricity utility has never escalated outages beyond Stage 6, which is equivalent to cutting 6,000MW off the grid. South Africa's power generation capacity is limited by maintenance works at the country's sole nuclear plant.
• A firmer commodity complex may be providing some support to the South African Rand, with the aggregate BBG Commodity Index last ~0.6% better off, albeit the precious metals subindex has reversed earlier gains and last sits marginally below neutral levels.