JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s rand was little changed in early trade on Wednesday, after making modest gains the previous day as risk sentiment improved.

At 0714 GMT, the rand traded at 19.1250 against the U.S. dollar, not far from its previous close of 19.1125.

There were no economic data releases scheduled on Wednesday. March producer price inflation will be released on Thursday.

“We will need to see the dollar lose further ground in order for the rand to test the 19.00 level and we expect some further consolidation within the 19.00/19.25 range for the short term,” said Andre Cilliers, currency strategist at TreasuryONE.

South African rand slips in early trade

On the stock market, the Top-40 index was up 0.79% while the broader all-share was up 0.72% in early trade.

South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond was weaker in early deals, with the yield up 1.5 basis points to 10.710%.