Johannesburg - South Africa's rand weakened against the dollar on Wednesday as mining strike concerns lingered but investors remained wary of taking big positions ahead of a US jobs report at the end of the week, keeping the rand within a recent range.
At 17:48 SA time, the local unit was down at 10.6225 to the dollar, weakening within the last few sessions' trading levels.
However, investors continued to take note of a platinum strike by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) now its 10-week.
The world's top platinum producer, Anglo American Platinum, sent force majeure notices to some of the suppliers to its strike-hit South African mines. Rivals Impala Platinum and Lonmin have also been affected.
“The ongoing events in the mining sector have not assisted the rand's cause,” said William Van Rijn, a currency trader at Nedbank.
Caution was the name of the game ahead of an interest rate decision by the European Central Bank on Thursday and non-farm payrolls data out of the United States on Friday.
“They will be fairly significant for emerging markets across the board. As a result the rand has not made much progress and it's also been restricted to a very narrow range,” Nedbank's Van Rijn added.
Trading volumes were at their lowest since March 10, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Yields on government bonds were also little-changed with the benchmark 2026 issue up 2 basis points at 8.505 percent. - Reuters