Rand steady on Monday

The rand was little changed in early trade on Monday after weakening last week along with other emerging market currencies.

At 09:11, the rand traded at R18.81 against the dollar.

The dollar last traded at 103.100, around 0.15% stronger against a basket of global currencies.

“The renewed rand weakness over the past week has been driven by generalised weakness in emerging markets, rather than anything South Africa-specific or broad-based dollar moves,” Rand Merchant Bank analysts said in a research note.

Emerging market weakness has been driven by falling commodity prices, tighter monetary policy in developed economies and the Chinese yuan’s weakness, analysts added.

South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond was slightly stronger in early deals, with the yield down 2 basis point to 10.490%.