The rand traded in a very narrow range today with a slight recovery seen during late trade on Tuesday‚ with investors awaiting news from the EU summit on Thursday and Friday this week and local traders focussing on the ANC policy conference that started today.

“The rand was trading in a narrow range of between 8.42 and 8.48 today with a weaker bias. We are expecting R8.60 in the near future‚” said Brigid Taylor‚ head of flow sales at Nedbank.

At 18:00 the rand was bid at R8.4612 to the dollar from its previous close of R8.4661. It was bid at R10.5485 to the euro from its previous close of R10.5833 and at R13.2058 against sterling from R13.1879 before. The euro was bid at US$1.2467 from its previous close of $1.2501.

Meanwhile soaring borrowing costs in Spain sent the euro sharply lower against the dollar and the pound‚ although the single currency managed to regain its composure and pared losses in later European trading on Tuesday.

Dow Jones Newswires earlier reported that the euro traded at its lowest level in June against the pound‚ sinking below GBP0.8000 and as low as GBP0.7992 after Spain auctioned EUR3.077 billion (US$3.850bn) of three-month and six-month treasury bills. While the amount sold was in the upper end of the targeted range‚ the yields paid by Spain were the highest so far in 2012.

Bonds

South African bonds continued their recovery in afternoon trade on Tuesday from the early morning’s worst levels.

“Nothing much happened this afternoon as the bounce back from this morning’s worst levels took place after the auction at 11:00‚” a local trader said.

At 18:00‚ the benchmark R157 bond was trading at 6.060 percent from Monday’s close of 6.070 percent and Friday’s close of 6.010 percent. The R207 was bid at 7.235 percent and offered at 7.215 percent from a previous close of 7.250 percent and the R186 was trading at 8.055 percent from its previous close of 8.080 percent.