JOHANNESBURG Oct 19 (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand was
largely flat for most of Friday’s Johannesburg trade and worries
over strikes in the mining sector are seen capping any
significant gains.
The rand was at 8.6401 against the dollar at 1551
GMT, barely moved from Thursday’s close at 8.6520.
“All of the big moves kind of already played out early into
the European session … and that’s why you see the rand rather
flat today,” said Sean McCalgan, a market analyst at research
house ETM.
The rand has pulled back significantly since hitting a 3-1/2
low of 8.9950 to the dollar earlier this month when strikes in
the mining and transport sectors spooked investors.
But as mine workers continue to square off against employers
over pay, analysts believe the currency will struggle to gather
enough momentum to move towards the 8.15/20 range that has been
a key resistance area since July.
“I don’t think there’ll be a serious recovery even if we see
positive news out of the mines because the negative impact has
already played out and there’s always potential for strikes to
flare up again,” McCalgan said.
Like the rand, government bonds also had a lacklustre
session on Friday, with the yield on the three-year benchmark
dipping one basis point to 5.39 percent while the
14-year paper closed two basis points lower at 7.565
percent.
(Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
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