South Africa's rand firmer, stocks set to open lower

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's rand firmed against the dollar early on Thursday as the greenback slipped after the U.S. Federal Reserve stuck to its mildly upbeat economic view but gave no hint of accelerating rate hikes. * At 0645 GMT, the rand traded at 13.3775 per dollar, 0.76percent firmer from its New York close on Wednesday. * The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against abasket of six major rival currencies, fell 0.15 percent to99.496. * The Federal Reserve on Wednesday h