JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's rand steadied against the dollar on Friday and was expected to remain in familiar ranges as dealers bid their time ahead of Monday's decision on whether Greece will secure a bailout package to avert a chaotic default. There were no domestic figures coming out during the trading day, so the rand will continue to take direction from abroad, traders said. Government bonds were slightly firmer in line with the rand. The rand was at 7.7726 to the dollar in early trade, not far from Thursday's New York close of 7.7755. "Its just headline driven. At this stage, the market has got itself short euros or long dollars across the board. This is an overnight squeeze until we get clarity on the Greek story," said Ian Martin, a trader at Rand Merchant Bank. "I think we going to remain choppy," Martin added. The rand hit a two-and-half week low of 7.88 on Thursday but rebounded after encouraging jobs data from the U.S. Tradition Analytics said in a note investors are looking to Monday's decision on the Greek bailout plan and are unlikely to commit to positions before then. On fixed income, the 2015 bond yield fell two basis points to 6.64 percent and that on the 2026 note was down by the same margin to 8.285 percent. Local stocks looked set for a positive start, with the blue-chip Top-40 March futures contract up 0.73 percent before the start of trade at 0700 GMT.

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