The rand traded a tad stronger in late trade on Friday albeit in very quiet territory.
"We had a very quiet day today with the euro doing very well or the dollar doing very badly, depending on which way you look at it," said Jim Bryson,currency trader at Rand Merchant Bank (RMB).
"The rand is not as strong as it should be, because of local mining uncertainty and we are quite weak against the euro with the rand being kept hostage to bad labour-related news," he added.
At 4.04pm, the rand was bid at R8.2278 to the dollar from R8.2365 at Thursday's close. It was bid at R10.8244 to the euro from its previous close of R10.7043 and at R13.3436 against sterling from R13.3008 before. The euro was bid at $1.3164 from $1.2994 at Thursday's close.
Bonds softer on numerous factors
The South African bond market was softer in afternoon trade on Friday on a host of factors.
At 3.30pm,the benchmark R157 bond was trading at 5.530 percent from 5.480 percent at Thursday's close. The R207 was bid at 6.590 percent and offered at 6.570 percent from Thursday's close of 6.490 percent, and the R186 was trading at 7.560 percent from 7.430 percent at its previous close.
The rand was bid at R8.2547 from Thursday's close of R8.2365 and Wednesday's close of R8.3216.
SAA denied rumours that its acting chief executive Nico Bezuidenhout had lied about his qualifications.
Thousands of farmers have applied to employ foreign workers after the introduction of a new minimum wage.
The rand plunged to its weakest level against the dollar in close to four years on Thursday.
