Currencies

The rand softened against the dollar in late trade on Friday as the greenback clawed back some of its global losses inspired by Thursday's revaluation of the Chinese yuan.

Importers were also seen buying dollars after the rand hit a two-month high on Thursday and all eyes this week will be focused on a slew of domestic economic data.

The rand was at R6,62 against the dollar, about 6c weaker on the session. It reached R6,51 to the dollar at one point on Thursday after the Chinese news, its strongest level against the dollar in almost two months.

The dollar gained strongly against the yen on Friday but no big swings are seen in the rand early this week. The rand looks caught in a range of R6,50 to R6,70 to the dollar and traders believe it will weaken somewhat against the dollar, depending partly on what the euro does.

The dollar regained some of the previous session's steep losses against the yen on Friday as markets pondered the implications of China's move to drop the yuan's peg against the dollar.

In late afternoon trade, the dollar had risen 0,9% to ¥111,30 after falling on Thursday by ¥2,5 to a three-week low of ¥109,85 following China's news.

Sterling slipped 0,8% to $1,7381, as security concerns intensified and British growth data came out within expectations.