JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand steadied against the dollar on Friday but was expected to weaken towards a six-week low of 8.30 as ongoing worries about the euro zone debt crisis keep investors away from risky assets.
The rand has been volatile within a wide range of 7.70 and 8.27 in the past two months, and the Reserve Bank says it cannot control the deeply traded currency that is seen as a barometer of risk sentiment.
Government bonds weakened but were off multi-week lows seen earlier this week after a knee-jerk reaction to Reserve Bank comments that inflation would remain the focus of monetary policy.
Domestic stocks looked set to open lower at 0700 GMT in line with battered global markets. The JSE's December futures contract was down 0.83 percent.
The rand was trading at 8.22 to the dollar at 0645 GMT, not far from Thursday's New York close of 8.2150. It was off a one-month low of 8.2651 on Thursday.
"The rand is coming under pressure as the global backdrop remains dire," said Brigid Taylor, head of institutional sales at Nedbank, adding resurgent worries about debt management in the United States and weak demand for Spanish and Italian bonds was turning investors off high risk assets.
"We see the rand coming under more pressure. A break above 8.23 opens up 8.30 and then 8.50."
Although the rand has recovered from 28-month lows of 8.4950 to the dollar in September, it has failed several times to break convincingly through resistance at 7.80.
Market analysts Tradition said levels above 8.30 were "very realistic" on Friday, with 8.50 being the next target.
On fixed income, the yield on the 2015 bond was up one basis point to 6.83 percent and that on the 2026 note up 1.5 basis points to 8.495 percent.
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