JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa’s rand fell on Thursday on continuing uncertainty over the war in Ukraine and as commodity prices, which benefit the resource-rich country, fell, although it was still the second-best performing major emerging market currency this quarter.
At 1440 GMT, the rand traded at 14.5845 against the dollar, around 0.87% weaker than its previous close, as it retreated from a new five-month high of 14.3968 set earlier in the day.
Ukrainian forces are preparing for new Russian attacks in the east of the country as Moscow builds up its troops there after suffering setbacks near the capital Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday.
The rand has strengthened almost 9% this year, its best performance since December 2020 and the second strongest performance among major emerging market currencies this year, according to Refinitiv data, behind the Brazilian real.
“The rand has remained resilient on the back of elevated precious metal prices, despite the Fed hiking rates for the first time since 2018,” Nedbank analysts said in a note.
On Thursday, prices of some commodities such as platinum and palladium edged lower.
Locally, producer price inflation data published on Thursday showed it had quickened in February to 10.5% year on year, from 10.1% in January. [nJ8N2PD02R
Its trade surplus widened to 10.60 billion rand ($726.09 million) in February, from a revised 4.07 billion rand in January, revenue service data showed on Thursday.
In fixed income, the benchmark 2030 maturity weakened, with the yield up six basis points to 9.625%.
Stocks were flat, with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s Top-40 Index down 0.03% to 68,508 points and the broader All-Share Index up 0.1% to 75,497 points.
($1 = 14.5988 rand)
(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Rachel Savage; Editing by Alex Richardson and Bernadette Baum)
