JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand was steady against the dollar on Monday with investors trading cautiously ahead of a US national holiday.
The rand was at 8.3999 against the dollar at 0613 GMT, little changed from Friday's New York close of 8.4041. Low trading volumes are expected due to the U.S and Canadian labour day holidays on Monday.
"It is the kind of environment where investors will be cautious of taking any significant positions," Tradition Analytics in a client note.
The currency is also holding steady on hopes the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank will soon take policy steps to revive their respective economies.
Analysts see the rand trading in a range of 8.35-8.45. It firmed on Friday against the dollar after US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke promised the central bank would act as needed to boost the world's biggest economy and bring down unemployment.
Both yields on the benchmark bonds fell three basis points to 5.46 percent for the three year bond and to 7.4 percent for the 14 year paper.
In terms of data, traders will take clues on how the local manufacturing sector is doing from the Kagiso Securities release of the local August Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data at 0900 GMT.
Investors will also pay close attention to PMI data from European countries due for release later in the session to gauge the economic health of the euro zone.
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