JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand eased but remained near a 3-1/2 year lows against the dollar on Tuesday due to weeks of labour unrest that have rattled investors in Africa's biggest economy.
By 0635 GMT, the rand was trading at 8.8454 to the greenback, a touch softer than Monday's New York close of 8.9186.
During the previous session, the rand fell more than two percent to 8.995 - its lowest since April 2009 - but then retraced its steps.
Despite support at 9.0, analysts say the rand is likely to remain under pressure with no end in sight to the strikes that have hit the mining, manufacturing and transport sectors.
"We don't see any change in the status quo. Things are still poor. It looks like the market's found some kind of equilibrium for now," said David Gracey, a currency trader for Investec.
Government bonds, which slid with the rand on Monday, also found a bit of firm footing to trade higher.
The yield on the three-year benchmark was 4 basis points lower to 5.49 percent and that for the 14-year issue dropped 5.5 basis points at 7.82 percent.
Treasury will sell a total of 2.1 billion rand ($236 million) over a range of its 2023, 2021 and 2031 government bonds in the session. Results are due after the auction closes at 0900 GMT.
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