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Johannesburg - The rand was slightly weaker but within a
recent range against the dollar on Thursday and government bonds followed suit
as global markets were seen driving the domestic market in the session.
The local macroeconomic calendar is bare and traders are
watching overseas developments before taking positions.
The dollar gained broadly after the US Federal Reserve ended
its second phase of quantitative easing in the previous session, with analysts
saying this would offer short term support to the greenback.
The rand was 0.3% weaker at R6.7975 against the dollar in
the early morning session but dealers saw no immediate direction as it weakened
within a three week range. It closed at the R6.7750 level in New York on
Wednesday.
"Dollar/rand has no obvious direction coming into this
morning. Euro/dollar remains the main driver as attention switches from Greece
and the Fed to global economic data," RMB said in a research note.
Bond yields nudged up and the stock market looked to a lower
open as the September futures contract ALSIc1 was down 0.76% ahead of the 07:00
GMT start of trade.
The yield on the four-year bond R157 edged up 0.5 basis points to 7.48% while the 2026 paper R186 added 2.5 basis points to 8.585%.
