Rand stays stuck in a range

The South African rand was trapped in a tight range in afternoon trade on Thursday.

At 15.39pm the rand was bid at R7.60 to the dollar, R9.32 to the euro and R11.12 to the pound. The euro was bid at $1.2245 from $1.2236 previously.

A local trader said: "It is very dull this afternoon, following an initial sell-off this morning."

One other trader said: "We are in a tight range this afternoon at 7.58-7.65 against the dollar, with very little drivers for direction."

Dow Jones Newswires reports that the euro and other risk-sensitive currencies are higher Thursday as investors cautiously shift back toward riskier assets in the absence of any bad news from Europe's sovereign debt crisis.

Movements in the major currencies have been contained, with the euro already surrendering some of its earlier gains in thin trading.