Rand flat in early trade

The rand was flat early on Wednesday, while the US dollar remained under pressure following its retreat in the previous session.

At 0721 GMT, the rand traded at R18.84 against the dollar.

The dollar index was last down 0.1% against a basket of major currencies.

On Thursday, investors will be looking toward President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) to see what solutions are proposed to fix South Africa’s power crisis and rail and port problems, which have strangled growth in Africa’s most industrialised economy.

South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond slipped in early deals, with the yield up 2.5 basis points to 9.830%.