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Johannesburg - The rand was weaker in early Thursday trade,
hovering around key technical levels, and bonds slipped ahead of manufacturing
data that should give pointers to first quarter economic growth.
Manufacturing numbers for January are due out at 11:00 GMT.
Ten economists surveyed by Reuters saw a big jump in production to 2.2% on the
year, from 0.2% in December.
The rand was 0.63% weaker at R6.9075 at 06:30 GMT, off a close of R6.8640 on Wednesday.
However, research house Tradition Analytics believes the
currency is likely to maintain its strength in the long term due to the basic
structure of an economy that many investors rank as a major commodity producer.
"Commodities appear to be enjoying a super-cycle which
might very well persist for as long as governments choose to adopt expansionary
fiscal policies that force their central banks into quantitative easing,"
Tradition said in a note.
Dealers are waiting for a break in either direction on the
rand's most recent range of R6.85/93 to signal moves higher or lower and give
the currency some momentum.
"A break of either limit of this range would trigger
the next significant move," Tradition said.
Government bonds slipped compared to previous closing
levels.
The yield on the 2015 bond R157 nudged up 1.5 basis points to 7.88% compared to a close fo 7.855% on the JSE on Wednesday. The yield on 15-year paper R186 climbed 3 basis points to 9.01%, off a close of 8.965%.
