JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand hardly moved on Tuesday as investors refrained from making any large bets ahead of medium-term budget review and inflation data on Wednesday while stocks ended slightly lower.
By 1530 GMT, the rand was at 13.2520 versus the greenback, up 0.24 percent from Monday's close of 13.2835.
"The rand is really on the ranges, awaiting for the CPI data tomorrow and the medium term budget speech tomorrow.
It all depends on how the market interprets our fiscal situation," said Ion de Vleeschauwer a chief forex dealer at Bidvest Bank.
Investors ignored the stronger than expected US housing data, which economists say strengthen the argument for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this year as the US economy is in "pretty decent shape".
Central bank Deputy Governor Daniel Mminele said on Tuesday the expected interest rate increase by the US Fed have been partly priced into the rand exchange rate and it is not clear by how much.
On the debt market, the yield for debt maturing in 2026 added 0.5 basis points to 8.275 percent.
On the bourse, stocks ended a touch lower, with mining shares under pressure as concerns about the health of the Chinese economy undermined commodity prices.
The blue-chip JSE Top-40 index was down 0.65 percent at 47,410 and the broader All-share index fell by the same margin to 52,880. "Weak Chinese data are still having after-effects," Commerzbank said in a note.
"They give rise to concern that demand for metals is declining in by far the most important consumer country."
China's economic growth dipped below 7 percent for the first time since the global financial crisis.
Copper fell to its lowest in nearly two weeks as a slowdown in economic growth in top user China flattened a seasonal pick-up in demand.
Bourse heavyweight BHP Billiton was off 0.51 percent at 224.46 rand and rival Anglo American was 0.36 percent down at 128.21 rand. Trade on the bourse was robust with more than 230 million shares changing hands, well above last year's daily average of 183 million shares.
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