The rand is stronger against the dollar in midday trade on Wednesday as participants react to the easing in monetary policy from the Bank of Japan (BOJ).

"We are seeing a little bit of a retracement to R8.21 against the dollar today due to the Bank of Japan easing monetary policy and boosting its asset purchasing programme," said Lynden Reabow, an FX trader from PSG Prime.

At 11.29am, the rand was bid at R8.1985 to the dollar from R8.1825 at Tuesday's close. It was bid at R10.6807 to the euro from its previous close of R10.6764 and at R13.3085 against sterling from R13.2862 before.

The euro was bid at $1.3036 from $1.3042 at Tuesday's close.

"There is a lot of strong sentiment at the moment. We could see the rand trade stronger, in the short term, possibly to as low as R8.09 against the dollar. The Lonmin news played a part in the stronger rand but took a bit of a back seat to the news from the BOJ," Reabow said.

Bonds remain firm after CPI

The South African bond market remained firm in midday trade on Wednesday after the August consumer price index (CPI) release at 10am came in at the consensus forecast of 5.0 percent year on year (y/y) from 4.9 percent y/y in July.

At 11.40am, the benchmark R157 bond was trading at 5.405 percent from 5.420 percent at Tuesday's close and 5.490 percent at Monday's close. The R207 was bid at 6.450 percent and offered at 6.430 percent from Tuesday's close of 6.490 percent, and the R186 was trading at 7.470 percent from 7.510 percent at its previous close.

The rand was bid at R8.2089 from Tuesday's close of R8.1825.