* Rand support at 8.45, firmer short-term trend seen
* Bonds edge lower, foreigners sell local debt
JOHANNESBURG May 28 (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand climbed
1.5 percent against the dollar and bonds edged down on Monday on
renewed hope for a solution to Greece’s problems, but the
currency later gave up some gains in thin trade as U.S. markets
were closed.
The rand climbed to a session high of 8.2754/dollar
before retreating to 8.3480 by 1557 GMT, still up 0.7 percent
from Friday’s close at 8.4050.
“It’s a dollar holiday today so the market is pretty
illiquid and fairly volatile,” Standard Bank trader Warrick
Butler said. “We closed at 8.40 on Friday, so for us to move all
the way down to 8.28 on a nothing day was a bit too much.”
The rand has lost about 8 percent against the greenback this
month, stung by the possibility of a messy Greek exit from the
euro zone which has driven investors to safe-haven assets.
But the local unit has repeatedly found support around 8.45
in the last couple of weeks, a level it also failed to breach in
mid-December, and technical analysts see a firmer trend for the
currency in the short term.
“I’m looking for dollar/rand to be rangebound at 8.20 to
8.45 over the next two to three days. (Greek) fears have
subsided a bit so we could see a little bit of risk-on later in
the week and we could still see 8.15 before the rand weakens
again,” said Absa Capital technical strategist Judy Padayachee.
Government bonds edged lower on Monday, and the yields for
three year and 14-year benchmarks each added
1.5 basis points to 6.365 percent and 8.33 percent respectively.
Data from the JSE securities exchange showed foreign
accounts were net sellers of local debt last week.
(Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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