The rand continued to be range bound in noon trade on Thursday, despite a brief dip by way of a reaction to the announcement of the trade deficit figure at 11am.

South Africa's current account deficit in the first quarter of 2009 came in wider than market expectations of –5.9 percent at –7.0 percent, central bank data on Thursday revealed.

At 11.45am the rand was bid at 8.1293 to the dollar from an overnight close of 8.0455 on Wednesday. It was bid at 11.3327 to the euro from a previous 11.2170 and at 13.2000 against sterling from 13.1660.

The euro was bid at $1.3941 from $1.3940 overnight.

A local currency trader said: " The current account deficit did add weight earlier, with the rand weakening shortly after the announcement, but it is nothing to get carried away about.

"The rand did test lower levels briefly, but we are still range bound, at between 8.00 and 8.15-17," he said.

RMB analyst John Cairns said in a daily report that ongoing pressure in commodity prices and the resulting fall in local equities provide a negative backdrop for the ZAR. "But after testing and failing at 8.12/14 yesterday, USD/ZAR is safely back in the boring range just above 8.00. EUR/USD remains the main focus and even though a weak US CPI figure has removed the fears of a late-2009 Fed rate hike, there seems little reason to expect any major moves given the lack of key international data today or tomorrow. Look for range- bound trade but with the risks still to the upside," said Cairns.

"The crosses aren't much more exciting than USD/ZAR. EUR/ZAR has broken its downward trend to trade around 11.20. As with the USD cross, the risks are mildly to the upside," he concluded.

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