Rand mostly flat, investors still eyeing Greece

Johannesburg - The rand was mostly flat against the dollar on Monday and likely to mainly tread water as investors eyed ongoing efforts to secure a bailout for debt-ridden Greece.

On the local front, investors would focus on retails sales data due out on Wednesday, the last major economic release ahead of next week's central bank decision on interest rates.

At 08:37, the rand was trading at R12.4575/$, not far off Friday's close in New York at 12.4500.

In fixed in come, the yield on debt maturing in 2026 was unchanged at 8.235%.

The rand's failure to breach 12.6000 last week despite some good momentum would be worrying for dollar bulls, leaving scope for the currency to retrace towards the mid to lower 12.20s, Standard Bank trader Oliver Alwar said.

"The strategy however remains to buy dips; euro remains above 1.1100 this morning and already Chinese stocks have given a lift to Asian equities, this may well feed into our own bourse and the currency could find support," he added.