JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand stumbled on Tuesday, driven by a firming dollar and negative sentiment ahead of credit rating decisions at the end of this week.
At 1430 GMT, the rand was 0.05 percent weaker at 14.1000 per dollar, not far moved from its New York close of 14.0475.
The local currency spent most of the session on back foot, dipping to a low of 14.1500, a short-term support level pegged by some traders as an exit level.
Technical analysts said the rand was likely to fall as far as 14.2500 before Friday's decision on the country's rand-denominated debt by S&P Global and Moody's.
The rand's pull as a carry-trade has however limited its slide lower, with some investors betting on lower US interest rates for longer and a chance of hikes by the South African central bank in 2018.
Thirteen of 25 economists surveyed by Reuters on Monday said at least one of the major agencies would cut South Africa's local currency rating to junk. The other 12 said there would not be a downgrade.
"A touch of caution ahead of the pending inflation figures and interest rate direction, have also played a role in the Rand's weakness," said currency analyst at FXTM Lukman Otunuga.
In the equities market, the main indexes hit record highs, boosted by earnings-related gains in Life Healthcare, Barloworld and electrical components manufacturer Reunert Ltd.
Life Healthcare, which also has operations in Poland, India and the United Kingdom, surged 6.78 percent to 26 rand on better prospects for next year after reporting a sharp drop in full-year profit.
"Overall the results indicated a relatively better outlook for the various regions," said 36 One Asset Management analyst Shmuel Simpson. "In South Africa the decline in patient volumes seems to have bottomed and management is expecting growth into financial year 2018."
Barloworld, an official dealer of Caterpillar construction and mining equipments in 11 southern African countries, hit a record high of 144.53 rand, a day after full-year headline earnings per share increased 16 percent.
Reunert rose 4.52 percent to 68.42 rand after full-year HEPS and revenue climbed 19 percent and 15 percent respectively.
The All-Share index climbed 1.31 percent to 61,293 points, while the blue-chip Top-40 index rose 1.54 percent to 55,166 points.
In fixed income, the yield for the benchmark government bond due in 2026 was up 3.5 basis points at 9.455 percent.
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