JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand was on the backfoot against the dollar on Thursday, turning in the second-weakest performance in a basket of 25 emerging market currencies offloaded by investors bracing for higher US rates.
Stocks ended slightly firmer with bourse heavyweight Anglo American among the biggest gainers as metal prices cruised higher.
The rand fell 1 percent to a session low of 14.2900 per dollar, and was 0.9 percent softer at 14.2750 by 1534 GMT, compared with Wednesday's close.
The local unit, which is vulnerable to bouts of emerging market sell-offs because of South Africa's persistent budget and current account shortfalls, underperformed most of its peers except for the Turkish lira.
Trading volumes were thin because of the US Thanksgiving holiday, resulting in exaggerated currency moves, dealers said.
In fixed income, the yield on the benchmark instrument due in 2026 added 5.5 basis points to 8.515 percent.
On the bourse, the blue-chip JSE Top-40 index was up 0.44 percent at 46,877 and the broader All-share index gained 0.61 percent to 52,229.
Anglo American rose 3.88 percent to 90.90 rand as metal prices such copper and nickel strengthened.
Rival BHP Billiton, however, fell 2.33 percent to 178.35 rand, after JP Morgan cut its rating on the stock to "underweight" from "neutral", saying it was factoring in a 50 percent reduction in dividend.
Trading volumes were robust with more than 700 million shares changing hands, well above last year's daily average of 183 million.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.