JOHANNESBURG Oct 30 (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand traded
within a narrow range on Tuesday as the closure of stock and
bond markets in the United States due to the giant storm there
dampened activity.
The rand was at 8.6400 to the dollar at 1512 GMT, 0.4
percent firmer than Monday’s New York close.
“We’ve been fairly rangebound for a few days now,” said
Nilan Morar, head of trading at Global Trader.
“We’re pretty much trading in an environment with a
marginally weaker dollar, which is what has kept the rand fairly
stable.”
Local data due this week, including September’s trade
balance and unemployment figures, had to a large extent been
absorbed by the market, Morar added.
“Unemployment, as we know, has been annoyingly high and is
expected to remain that way for a while,” he said. “I don’t see
anything surprising there.”
Government bonds were stable, with yields on the 3- and
14-year instruments at 5.49 percent and 7.75 percent
respectively.
The Treasury sold a total of 2.1 billion rand ($242 million)
of its 2031, 2041 and 2048
government bonds on Tuesday, though yields barely moved.
(Reporting by Tosin Sulaiman; editing by Stephen Nisbet)
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