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Rand edges lower ahead of data

Johannesburg - The rand weakened against the dollar on Wednesday as mining strike concerns lingered but investors remained wary of taking big positions ahead of a US jobs report at the end of the week, keeping the rand within a recent range.

At 15:48 GMT, the local unit was down at R10.6225/$, weakening within the last few sessions' trading levels.

However, investors continued to take note of a platinum strike by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) now its 10-week.

Anglo Platinum (Amplats) and Lonmin sent force majeure notices to some of the suppliers to its strike-hit South African mines. Impala Platinum (Implats) and Lonmin have also been affected.

"The ongoing events in the mining sector have not assisted the rand's cause," said William Van Rijn, a currency trader at Nedbank.

Caution was the name of the game ahead of an interest rate decision by the European Central Bank on Thursday and non-farm payrolls data out of the United States on Friday.

"They will be fairly significant for emerging markets across the board. As a result the rand has not made much progress and it's also been restricted to a very narrow range," Nedbank's Van Rijn added.

Trading volumes were at their lowest since March 10, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Yields on government bonds were also little-changed with the benchmark 2026 issue up 2 basis points at 8.505%.
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Rand - Dollar
18.92
+0.1%
Rand - Pound
23.87
+0.2%
Rand - Euro
20.39
+0.2%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.32
+0.1%
Rand - Yen
0.13
+0.1%
Platinum
908.05
0.0%
Palladium
1,014.94
0.0%
Gold
2,232.75
-0.0%
Silver
24.95
-0.1%
Brent-ruolie
87.00
+1.8%
Top 40
68,346
0.0%
All Share
74,536
0.0%
Resource 10
57,251
0.0%
Industrial 25
103,936
0.0%
Financial 15
16,502
0.0%
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