Johannesburg - The rand weakened against the dollar on Monday and is likely to remain range-bound as long as the budget impasse in the continues.
The rand was at R10.0050/$ at 08:35, down 0.3% from its close in New York on Friday.
It has traded in the R9.95 to R10.15 range in the past week as Democrats and Republicans failed to reach an agreement on ending the government shutdown. The stalemate has raised doubts about the timing of the tapering of the Federal Reserve's bond-buying stimulus.
"The local unit continued to trade in a narrow range on Friday and we expect more of the same until US policymakers can break the deadlock that has caused parts of the to be non-operational for almost a week," Absa Capital analysts wrote in a note.
Local data released on Monday showed that net gold and foreign exchange reserves rose in September to $45.753bn from $45.588bn in August, but this had no apparent effect on the rand.