JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa’s rand edged up on Wednesday, attempting a recovery from an almost two-month low as investors awaited fresh signals on the global and domestic economic outlook.
At 1440 GMT, the rand traded at 17.4250 per dollar, up about 0.6% after falling more than 1% on Tuesday amid weaker gold prices, in line with other commodity-linked currencies.
S&P Global earlier reported that South Africa’s private sector activity contracted for the first time in seven months in October, as firms faced a renewed downturn in output and orders.
But domestically focused traders seem to have shrugged off the news since the index also flagged that despite the downturn, business sentiment remained positive, with 34% of firms expecting activity to rise over the next 12 months.
The local economic calendar looks relatively lean for the rest of the week, with October’s foreign reserves data due on Friday the main focus for further clues on the health of the economy.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s Top-40 index also tried to stage a recovery after falling more than 2% on Tuesday.
The index was last up 1.2%, with the broader All share also trading stronger on the day.
South Africa’s benchmark 2035 government bond strengthened, with the yield shedding 5 basis points to 8.785%.
The nation’s risk-sensitive assets could consolidate around the current levels unless a significant catalyst related to domestic politics, U.S.
policy and economic events emerges for directional momentum.
(Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Shailesh Kuber)
