The rand was barely changed by noon on Thursday in what a local trader said was a fairly quiet session.

At 12:14 the rand was bid at 7.6463 to the dollar from 7.6090 at its previous close. It was bid at 11.3460 to the euro from its previous close of 11.3235 and was at 12.6410 against sterling from 12.6050.

The euro was bid at $1.4844 from $1.4876 overnight.

"There is not a lot happening, it's fairly quiet," the trader said.

"The mood in the market is towards selling. Players are expecting the market to test 7.60. The weakness this morning was due to some short covering on dollar/rand.

"Overall, with gold consolidating and the dollar weakening the market looks like it wants to target lower, i.e. a stronger rand," he said.

"There are economic releases throughout the day and we will have to watch out for those," another trader said.

Said a trader earlier: "The rand is very thin, it's done nothing overnight," one trader said.

"I would imagine that we will see some buying at around 7.62-7.72," he said.

"On the bottom side we will probably find support at around 7.59. We are in a range of about 7.60-7.75," said another trader.

Dow Jones Newswires reported that uncertainty over whether the Bank of England will extend its quantitative easing and whether US non-farm payrolls will live up to expectations left the dollar rising against most other majors in Europe on Thursday.

Losses that the dollar sustained immediately after the end of Wednesday's Federal Open Market Committee meeting proved short lived.

After the meeting, the Federal Reserve repeated its prediction that easy monetary policy will be maintained for an "extended period" but, in a departure from other recent statements, the central bank outlined the inflation trends that might prompt an earlier shift in policy.

Investors initially responded positively, especially as the Fed also reduced its target agency debt purchases by $25 billion to $175 billion. Stocks were bought and safe havens, such as the dollar and the yen, were sold.

However, it soon became apparent that neither the reduction in debt purchases nor the statement were pointing to any early tightening in US monetary policy.

As US equities tumbled down from earlier highs, the market once again lost its appetite for risk and the dollar was back in demand.

Bonds edged slightly firmer during the morning session on Thursday in line with the rand pulling off its worst intraday levels.

By 12.10am, the short-term government R154 bond was bid at 7.085 percent from a previous close of 7.045 percent. The medium-term R157 was at 8.330 percent from 8.355 percent, while the long-term R186 was bid at 8.945 percent from 8.955 percent.

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