Johannesburg - The rand was a bit softer against the dollar
early on Wednesday, largely reflecting the greenback’s broad-based gains, with
the market looking to a European Central Bank meeting and US non-farm jobs data
for clues on the health of the global economy.
The rand was down 0.19% at 8.4285 by 06:31 GMT after closing
Tuesday’s session at R8.4127.
“The rand is opening weaker mainly because the dollar is
stronger against the board. Everyone is just waiting for the ECB meeting
tomorrow and non-farms on Friday for direction,” said Standard Bank trader Jan
Defouw.
“Investors are still worried about Lonmin but today’s rand
moves are not about that really,” he added, referring to labour unrest at
Lonmin’s Marikana mine which left 44
people dead last month, 34 of them killed when police opened fire on striking miners.
The violence weighed on South African assets in August and
analysts say it has dented South Africa’s investment image to an extent.
Government bonds reversed the previous day’s gains on
Wednesday, with the yield on the three year paper adding 3.5 basis points to
5.42% and that for the 14-year issue gaining four basis points to 7.355 %.
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