The rand was mixed against major global currencies on Monday morning, weakening slightly against the dollar, but firmer against the euro after the US and Canada reached a trade agreement.
The deal between the US and Canada comes after months of rancorous negotiations that saw the White House threaten to exclude Canada from a revised North American Free Trade Agreement.
This outcome has lifted sentiment, analysts said.
Local factors are in the backseat on Monday, but the rand continues to be somewhat resilient amid a pick-up in sentiment towards emerging markets, TreasuryOne currency dealer Andre Botha said.
Focus will now shift to the medium-term budget policy statement, which has the potential for two-way risk to the rand, he said. "We expect a slight bias for the rand to move lower with the R14.10/$ proving sticky, and only a significant break of this level will open up the door for significant gains.”
The rand pared its gains against the dollar slightly on Monday morning, after the Central Energy Fund announced that petrol would rise R1 per litre at Midnight on Tuesday.
At 9.30am the rand was at R14.144 to the dollar from R14.113, at R16.3847 to the euro from R16.408 and at R18.4387 to the pound from R18.4066. The euro was at $1.1585 from $1.1618.
The bid on the benchmark R186 government bond was last seen at 9.01% from 8.99%.




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