* Rand held up by possibility of stimulus in the U.S.
* Currency seen trading 8.15-8.25 range
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 10 (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand held
on to gains against the dollar made last week after soft data in
the United States and China reinforced hopes of more stimulus
from the world’s two biggest economies.
The rand was at 8.1941 at 0622 GMT against the dollar from
Friday’s New York close of 8.1750.
“The rand has come back a lot stronger this morning … just
on the back of the negative U.S. unemployment data on Friday,”
said Brigid Taylor, head of institutional sales from Nedbank.
Data on Sunday revealed Chinese factories ran at their
slowest rate for 39 months in August, while the U.S. payrolls
report on Friday showed jobs growth slowed sharply last month.
Taylor said the rand looked set to trade in range of
8.15-8.25 against the greenback.
On Tuesday the Reserve Bank is due to release its quarterly
bulletin for the second quarter at 0800 GMT which has the local
current account data for the second quarter.
Economists surveyed by Reuters showed the current account
deficit is likely to moderate slightly to 4.7 percent of GDP in
the second quarter of this year from a deficit of 4.9 percent in
the previous quarter due to robust portfolio inflows into
assets.
Yields on the government bonds were largely flat, with the
yield on three year bond picking up just half a basis
point to 5.375 percent and that on the longer 14-year paper flat
at 7.295 percent.
(Reporting by Vuyani Ndaba; editing by David Dolan)
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