South Africa's rand, stocks slide as trade tensions weigh

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand weakened on Tuesday, surrendering earlier gains as risk aversion over trade tensions between China and the United States seeped back into currency markets.

Stocks fell in line with global markets on dwindling hopes of a truce in the US-China trade war.

At 1545 GMT the rand traded at 13.9500 per dollar,  0.25 percent weaker than its New York close of 13.9150.

The currency touched an intraday best of 13.7900 before retreating as volumes in offshore trade picked up and brought a tide of dollar bulls.

Bonds also weakened, with the yield on the benchmark paper due in 2026 rising 3 basis points to 8.99 percent.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he expected to press on with raising tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25 percent from 10 percent currently, wobbling demand for riskier currencies.

"There seems to be a back and forth with the news about the trade tensions. Markets do not like uncertainty and this has been causing volatility," said Ryan Woods, trader at Independent Securities.

Locally, business confidence fell for the third straight quarter, squeezing out some of the lingering rand bulls ahead of gross domestic product figures due early next week.

In equities, the All Share index was down 0.65 percent to 51,354 points while the blue chip Top 40 index  fell 0.70 percent to 45,225 points.

South African chemicals and fertiliser maker Omnia Holdings  was 5.38 percent higher at 89.50 rand after saying it would cut about 125 jobs and reduce costs.