S.Africa's rand steady vs dollar, futures flat
JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand steadied against the dollar on Thursday in what was expected to be a range-bound session for the currency pair in the absence of any scheduled news or data.
The JSE's blue-chip March stock futures contract edged up to 0.10 percent, pointing to a flat open on the bourse at 0700 GMT. Analysts say investor risk aversion driven by political instability in Egypt has eased and the South African Reserve Bank seems to have stepped down its dollar-buying activities this week, suggesting a bias to a strengthening rand.
At 0633 GMT the rand was trading at 7.1535, slightly firmer than its New York close of 7.1620 on Wednesday.
The currency has strengthened gradually during the week, making small gains away from four-month lows of Monday.
In Thursday's session dealers say dollar/rand should stay in a 10 cent range and with no domestic events on the calendar, it will look offshore for further direction.
"I think we'll have a pretty uneventful day today. The 7.10-7.20 range is still holding, focusing on U.S. non-farm payrolls tomorrow. Until then we'll stay in the range," a local currency dealer said.
The 7.20/23 zone -- the bottom of its 2009-2010 range -- still offers strong technical support for the rand. It is unlikely to breach that without a significant flow of bad news from abroad, traders say.
Government bonds were slightly weaker, with the yield on the 2015 note up 1.5 basis points to 7.84 percent and that on the 2026 issue edging up one basis point to 8.665 percent.
The JSE's blue-chip March stock futures contract edged up to 0.10 percent, pointing to a flat open on the bourse at 0700 GMT. Analysts say investor risk aversion driven by political instability in Egypt has eased and the South African Reserve Bank seems to have stepped down its dollar-buying activities this week, suggesting a bias to a strengthening rand.
At 0633 GMT the rand was trading at 7.1535, slightly firmer than its New York close of 7.1620 on Wednesday.
The currency has strengthened gradually during the week, making small gains away from four-month lows of Monday.
In Thursday's session dealers say dollar/rand should stay in a 10 cent range and with no domestic events on the calendar, it will look offshore for further direction.
"I think we'll have a pretty uneventful day today. The 7.10-7.20 range is still holding, focusing on U.S. non-farm payrolls tomorrow. Until then we'll stay in the range," a local currency dealer said.
The 7.20/23 zone -- the bottom of its 2009-2010 range -- still offers strong technical support for the rand. It is unlikely to breach that without a significant flow of bad news from abroad, traders say.
Government bonds were slightly weaker, with the yield on the 2015 note up 1.5 basis points to 7.84 percent and that on the 2026 issue edging up one basis point to 8.665 percent.
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