JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand was mostly flat in early trade on Friday, with analysts expecting it to weaken going into the weekend in an environment of low risk appetite.
Stocks opened slightly in the red, with the JSE securities exchange's Top-40 index falling 0.4 percent.
At 0702 GMT, the rand traded at 14.3285 versus the dollar, 0.07 percent off Thursday's New York close at 14.3185.
Analysts said risk appetite was likely to be depressed ahead of a Federal Reserve policy meeting starting on Tuesday, which could signal a US rate hike in June.
"We may see a bit of a pullback in the rand towards the 14.45 level on short covering and profit taking ahead of the weekend," analysts at Nedbank said in a note.
Government bonds retreated slightly, pulling the yield for the benchmark paper maturing in 2026 up 2 basis points to 8.98 percent.
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