Johannesburg - The rand
firmed against the dollar on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve announced
a new round of monetary stimulus to bolster the world's biggest economy.
The rand was 0.3% stronger against
the dollar at R8.6227 at 07:00 GMT from New York's Wednesday's close of R8.65.
The US Federal Reserve took the
unprecedented step on Wednesday of indicating interest rates would remain near
zero until unemployment falls to at least 6.5%.
"It ... implies that the level of
inflows into emerging markets will remain well supported and inflows into South
African bonds are expected to extend well into 2013," Tradition Analytics
said in a client note.
"For the USD-ZAR, this could provide
the catalyst for a re-test of levels approaching R8.6000, although this support
has held firm in the past."
South Africa's Bureau of Economic Research
is due to release a survey of fourth quarter inflation expectations later in
the trading day and Statistics South Africa is due to release its November
producer inflation data at 09:30 GMT.
Economists polled by Reuters expect
producer price inflation to pick up to 5.4% in November from 5.2%
in October due to an upward trend in grain prices and a 7% decline in
the rand this year.
Government bonds were slightly weaker, with
the yield on the three year issue up one basis point to 5.44% and that
on the longer dated 14-year paper up by the same margin to 7.335 basis points.
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