JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand firmed slightly on Tuesday as the July 4 holiday in the United States restricted market activity, while stocks weakened as investors took profits in bourse heavyweight Naspers.
The rand was trading at 13.1850 versus the dollar by 1549 GMT, 0.26 percent stronger from the previous session's close and following three straight sessions of losses.
A policy conference of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) was the main focus for markets.
"A fairly quiet week ahead. A lot of people will look tomorrow with the conclusion of the ANC policy conference if there is anything new that is going to come out of that," said foreign exchange and money market sales at Rand Merchant Bank, Jan Sluis-Cremer.
South African government bonds strengthened, pushing the yield on the benchmark bond maturing in 2026 down 1 basis point to 8.780 percent.
Johannesburg's Top-40 stock index fell 0.38 percent to 45,994 points while the broader all-share dropped 0.22 percent to 52,164 points.
With trading volumes low, gains were curbed by Naspers' 4.37 percent fall to 2488.00 rand, which reflected profit-taking after the stock reached a record high of 2846.50 rand in May.
"Given the run it has been on it's not entirely unexpected," Independent Securities trader Ryan Woods said.
A rebound in gold prices from seven-week lows helped miners, with Goldfields rising 2.97 percent to 45.81 rand and AngloGold Ashanti up 2.49 percent to 128.14 rand.
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