Johannesburg - The rand edged weaker against the US dollar ahead of a retail sales report on Wednesday, giving up the slight gains it made in the previous session after manufacturing output beat market expectations.
By 08:43 SA time the local unit was 0.09 percent softer at 11.2300 per dollar from a New York close of 11.2200.
The currency inched away from support at 11.1500, with some traders seeing a resumption of last week's slide if the rand strayed beyond 11.3000.
“The rand's present underperformance offers a glimpse of the negativity still surrounding South Africa's fundamentals,” ETM Analytics said in a note.
“What was telling yesterday was the very real lack of positive reaction to a manufacturing growth number of 8 percent year-on-year that matched September 2011 highs.”
The rand tumbled to 5-week lows last week after ratings agency Moody's downgraded the country's credit status to Baa2, citing poor growth prospects and rising debt.
Direction on Wednesday was likely to come from domestic retail sales figures due at 13:00 SA time.
Economists polled by Reuters predicted a 2.8 percent year-on-year expansion in September sales, after the sector grew by 2.1 percent in August.
Government bonds were flat in morning trade with the yield on the benchmark issue due in 2026 unchanged at 7.945 percent. - Reuters