JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand firmed against the dollar on Monday but traded in a narrow range amid thin liquidity ahead of a public holiday on Tuesday.
The rand was at 9.8300 to the dollar at 1543 GMT, 0.6 percent stronger than its New York close on Friday, and traded within the 9.81-9.899 range throughout the day.
Markets will be closed for a public holiday on Tuesday but local and international data releases later in the week are expected to give the rand direction.
On Thursday, Statistics South Africa will release producer price inflation data for August. Economists polled by Reuters expect PPI to slow to 6.5 percent year-on-year in August, from 6.6 percent the in July.
US data, including consumer confidence and new home sales, as well as comments from Federal Reserve officials this week will also be closely watched.
"Today has been a very range-bound day because of the holiday environment. Not a lot of corporate activity but there will probably be some action from Wednesday onwards," said Bidvest Bank trader Ion de Vleeschauwer.
"US data is very important. If the dollar remains fairly weak as the Fed expects the economy not to do fantastically well then the rand should benefit in the weeks going forward. But it's going to be data-dependent."
Government bonds were little changed, with the yields on the 2026 and 2015 instruments each 1 basis point lower at 7.895 percent and 5.95 percent respectively.
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