* Rand seen caught in 8.10-8.30 range to year-end
* No domestic drivers for currency, tracks global moves
JOHANNESBURG Dec 22 (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand
was largely flat against the dollar in thin trading on Thursday
and should stay trapped in current ranges until the year-end
after a sharp rally earlier in the week ran out of steam on
persistent concerns about Europe’s debt woes.
At 0707 GMT, the rand traded at 8.2350 against the
greenback, little changed from the previous close of 8.2421.
It was more than two percent off Wednesday’s high of
8.07/dollar, which failed to hold as the rand took its cue from
a retreating euro, the currency of South Africa’s main trading
partner the European Union.
“We’re going to keep on seeing these sort of movements
linked to the euro because liquidity is thinning out with people
going on holiday. There’s very little position-taking; flows are
driving this thing,” Bidvest Bank chief dealer Ion de
Vleeschauwer said.
“There’s a bit of exporter flow helping the currency a bit
stronger at the moment but any sort of warble globally like we
saw yesterday is going to affect the rand … We’ll probably
hang around the wide 8.10 – 8.30 range till the New Year.”
Government bonds were mixed, with the yield on the
short-dated paper edging up three basis points to 6.82
percent while that for the 15-year bond was flat at 8.555
percent.
Trading volumes have also been thin on the debt market as
the year heads to a close, with the Johannesburg bond exchange
finishing earlier-than-usual at midday this week.
(Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)
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