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Rand weakens in muted trade

Johannesburg - The rand softened against the dollar on Thursday in thin post-holiday trade, underperforming many emerging market currencies. 

The rand was at R8.5168 to the dollar at 06:51 GMT, 0.3% weaker than Wednesday's New York close, making it one of the worst performers in a basket of 20 emerging market currencies monitored by Reuters. 

It had reached a 3-month high of R8.42 to the dollar early on Wednesday, lifted by US lawmakers reaching a deal to avoid a "fiscal cliff" of tax increases and spending cuts that threatened the world's biggest economy. 

The rand erased most of those gains later in the session. 

Trading was expected to pick up next week when most market participants return from their holidays, giving the rand some direction. 

"There's still a holiday mentality out there and liquidity has been very thin. The rand has been trading erratically," said one trader. 

"We will only start seeing proper trades coming back into the market next week when market participants are back again." 

The yield on the 2026 government bond was at 7.25% while the 2015 issue was yielding 5.33%.

 
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Rand - Dollar
19.01
-0.4%
Rand - Pound
24.13
-0.1%
Rand - Euro
20.62
-0.1%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.38
+0.3%
Rand - Yen
0.13
+0.5%
Platinum
901.05
-0.2%
Palladium
999.00
-0.7%
Gold
2,149.87
-0.5%
Silver
24.84
-0.8%
Brent-ruolie
86.89
+1.8%
Top 40
65,953
-0.5%
All Share
72,165
-0.4%
Resource 10
53,256
-0.1%
Industrial 25
99,523
-1.0%
Financial 15
16,664
+0.3%
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