The rand held on to its strong levels in late afternoon trade on Wednesday, pushing towards a target level of 7.20 amid a still generally weaker dollar, a currency trader said.

At 15.48 the rand was bid at 7.3387 to the dollar from 7.3715 at its previous close. It was bid at 10.7508 to the euro from its previous close of 10.8034 and was at 12.0887 against sterling from 12.1240.

The euro was bid at US$1.4664 from US$1.4661 overnight.

"The rand strength is continuing and that is mainly on the back of a weaker dollar," the trader said.

"There seems to be positive sentiment for emerging markets. We are pushing towards the 7.20 target.

"It will be a slow process, we still need the euro to move above 1.47. For the day, we are likely to remain in a range of about 7.28-7.38," he said.

"$ZAR maintains the downside bias with a break to new lows and in line with the overall bearish setup following the violation of the key 7.6127 July low," said JP Morgan in their forex report.

"This should allow for a closer test of the 7.35 area, if not the more important target at the 7.18 low from 2008," analysts said.

Dow Jones Newswires reports that the dollar is trimming overnight losses against major rivals early in the New York session, although it remains down against the yen.

The euro had climbed to another nine-month high on Wednesday against the dollar for its seventh consecutive trading session, driven by risk appetite and the ultra-low interest rate on the US unit. It rose to $1.4715, shy of a 12-month top above $1.4720.

Other higher-yielding currencies also rallied versus the dollar overnight, including the yen, which traditionally has been a lower-yielding currency. Three-month dollar Libor rates, though, fell again Wednesday, retaining the dollar's use as the financing currency of choice now. In this new environment, the dollar is getting hammered across the board.

"The yen's negative correlation to risk appetite has been definitively broken," said analysts at Credit Suisse.

To boot, the Nikkei and other media reported Wednesday that the incoming Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said that the recent foreign exchange market "is not fluctuating wildly" and therefore doesn't call for an intervention.

"(This) adds weight to the argument that a major dollar crisis may be on hand as the usual sources of support for the greenback disappear," said Geoffrey Yu, a currency strategist at UBS in London.

I-Net Bridge

The Malema factor ANCYL leader Julius Malema has become one of the most feared and most powerful figures in the ANC.

End of cutting cycle? Economists are doubtful whether the latest verdict of the MPC means the end of rate cuts.

Worst pension fund named The worst performing pension fund was named by the Pension Fund Adjudicator.