JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -The South African rand slipped on Tuesday as rising U.S. Treasury yields lifted the dollar.
At 1425 GMT, the rand traded at 15.4300 against the dollar, about 0.3% weaker than its previous close.
The dollar was up 0.3% against a basket of currencies as two-year Treasury yields — which track short-term interest rate expectations — rose above 1% for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Traders were positioning for the possibility of a hawkish surprise from the Federal Reserve that could end with four rate hikes this year.
The rand has tended to track global factors, especially dollar moves and the outlook for U.S. interest rates, in recent sessions, moving little on the few domestic economic data releases since the start of 2022.
Data on Tuesday showed November mining output rose 5.2% year on year, better than forecasts for 4.25% growth.
On Wednesday, the statistics agency will release December consumer inflation figures and November retail sales numbers .
Shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange also fell on Tuesday with the benchmark all-share index ended down 0.84% to 74,956 points and the blue-chip index of top 40 companies closed down 0.88% to 68,282 points.
The fall, albeit broad-based, was largely driven by a fall in index heavyweight tech major Naspers Ltd which registered a fall of close to 3.5% on a massive global tech shares sell-off on the back of rising treasury yield.
However, petrochemical company Sasol Ltd bucked the trend by rising over 6.5% on the back of crude oil prices that hit sever-year highs.
The South African government’s benchmark 2030 bond also dipped on Tuesday, with the yield rising 4 basis points to 9.455%.
(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee and Alexander WinningEditing by Nick Zieminski)
