Rand remains flat at midday

The rand was still range bound in midday trade on Friday amid low liquidity levels ahead of the weekend.

A local trader said the local unit was eyeing the euro vs dollar movement, which was almost unchanged from Thursday's levels. At 11.40am the rand was bid at R7.64 to the dollar, R9.33 to the euro and R11.21 to the pound. The euro was bid at $1.2184 from $1.2171 previously.

"The rand is trading in a R7.62 to R7.72 range against the dollar, barely unchanged from Thursday's closing levels.  We are tracking the euro vs USD movement which seems to have stabilised at 1.21 level from Thursday. The volumes are fairly thin going into the weekend," a local currency trader said.

Dow Jones Newswires reports that position-squaring ahead of U.S. non-farm payrolls lifted the euro and hurt the dollar on Friday, even as concerns about euro-zone sovereign debts continued to grow. Payrolls are widely forecast to have risen sharply last month with the Dow Jones Newswires consensus coming in at 515 000, compared with the 290 000 rise in April.