Rand steady ahead of manufacturing data, Sona

The rand was little changed in early trade on Thursday, ahead of manufacturing production figures and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s annual address to parliament later in the day.

The rand traded at 18.90 against the dollar on Thursday morning. The dollar was also flat against a basket of global currencies.

Statistics South Africa will release December manufacturing data at 1100 GMT.

Investors will be looking ahead to Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) at 7pm for any solutions he might propose to the nation’s power shortages and logistics crisis.

“Investors will be unwilling to take any significant positions ahead of the Sona later today, although one eye will also turn to a whole range of Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of England speakers that will be taking to the podium today and which could influence offshore market sentiment,” said ETM Analytics in a note.

South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond was flat in early deals, with the yield at 9.885%.