The rand recovered to below the 8.15 to the US dollar level in late trade on Monday as the euro/US dollar re-tested the 1.24 level in an otherwise quite market.

At 15:58 local time the rand was bid at R8.1457 to the dollar from Friday’s close of R8.1441. It was bid at R10.0939 to the euro from its previous close of R10.0799 and at R12.6823 against sterling from R12.7183 before.

The euro was bid at US$1.2398 from $1.2389.

“Trading overall has been completely lacklustre. The rand has pretty much reflected the euro/US dollar‚ which has been reasonably stable today‚ compared to last week’s big swings‚” said a local trader.

With no major data due in the US and after last week's barrage of central-bank meetings and key monthly reports‚ the market in the world’s biggest economy was also likely to be relatively quiet‚ Dow Jones Newswires reported.

The big themes remained investors’ concerns about the eurozone's debt and economic problems‚ while US growth was slow‚ they said.

Bonds hardly move in quiet day

The South African bond market closed on a very quiet note on Monday with very little happening ahead of the holiday on Thursday.

“The market is very quiet and it feels like December. A lot of the foreign traders have taken leave due to the Olympics‚ and some of our local guys are also missing with a public holiday coming up on Thursday‚” said a local trader.

“Tuesday sees the weekly bond auction‚ then on Wednesday the Eskom auction and Thursday the linked auction - hopefully the interest will pick-up then‚” the trader added.

At 16:02 the benchmark R157 was trading at 5.460 percent from Friday’s close of 5.430 percent. The R207 was bid at 6.420 percent and offered at 6.390 percent from its previous close of 6.385 percent and the R186 was bid at 7.275 percent and offered at 7.255 percent from its previous close of 7.260 percent.