Johannesburg - South Africa's rand edged firmer against the dollar on Tuesday and looked set to remain in a tight range, with no major local data releases which could provide direction and perhaps push the currency below the crucial 11.000/dlr mark.
At 08:50 SA time the rand was 0.15 percent stronger to 11.0330 per dollar against a New York close of 11.0500.
In the previous session, the rand rallied more than half a percent against the greenback, lifted after minerals buyer China revealed a surprise up-tick in imports.
The currency failed to gather enough momentum to break past technical resistance towards the 10.96 level it achieved last week.
“The local unit ... will likely be in limbo until tomorrow when retail sales and a deluge of US data releases should reinvigorate trading activity,” NKC Research in note to clients.
Statistics South Africa publishes retail sales figures for August on Wednesday at 13:00 SA time.
Yields on government bonds were flat in morning trade, with the bench-mark paper due in 2026 unmoved at 8.065 percent following a 5.5 point drop in the previous session. - Reuters