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Johannesburg - The rand was stable on Friday but remained on a weaker footing against a firmer dollar, buoyed by the US Federal Reserve's decision to start trimming its bond-buying programme.
The rand was at R10.4050 to the dollar at 06:29 GMT, little changed from its New York close on Thursday, when it fell to a one-week low of R10.4400.
The Fed on Wednesday modestly trimmed the pace of its monthly asset purchases by $10bn to $75bn, saying the US economy was finally strong enough for it to start tapering.
While fears of a sharp depreciation in the rand did not materialise as the market appears to have priced in the Fed's decision, analysts expect the rand to remain vulnerable in the coming year.
"South Africa continues to run large external and fiscal deficits that are proving slow to correct, against a backdrop of subdued growth, infrastructure limitations and weak commodity prices," Absa Capital analysts wrote in a note.
The yield on the 2026 government bond inched up 4 basis points to 8.2% while that on the 2015 paper was up 3.5 basis points at 6.09%.
The rand was at R10.4050 to the dollar at 06:29 GMT, little changed from its New York close on Thursday, when it fell to a one-week low of R10.4400.
The Fed on Wednesday modestly trimmed the pace of its monthly asset purchases by $10bn to $75bn, saying the US economy was finally strong enough for it to start tapering.
While fears of a sharp depreciation in the rand did not materialise as the market appears to have priced in the Fed's decision, analysts expect the rand to remain vulnerable in the coming year.
"South Africa continues to run large external and fiscal deficits that are proving slow to correct, against a backdrop of subdued growth, infrastructure limitations and weak commodity prices," Absa Capital analysts wrote in a note.
The yield on the 2026 government bond inched up 4 basis points to 8.2% while that on the 2015 paper was up 3.5 basis points at 6.09%.
